Is ACNH dying?

[IslaYuka]

Am I the only one who's worried this game is dying? The game is just over a year old now but it feels like 80% doesnt ever play anymore. I know the situation with the pandemic was exceptional and contributed to the game's massive popularity back in spring 2020. It just makes me sad that we're 1 year into the game's lifespan and nobody cares anymore.

Here on the forums the difference in activity (especially in the new neighbour network) is also huge. Don't get me wrong it really makes sense offcourse since most people have 'maxed out' in the game and have all the villagers and the island they want. But I really hope ACNH will get major updates to bring back interest again because I love this game too much to just see it die.

Maybe Nintendo can add Brewster, Tortimer island with new bugs/fish to collect and multiplayer activities, maybe even 2 extra villager slots but that seems unlikely.

What do you all think?

 

[lemoncrossing]

I agree with what you said— I think the “dying” is in part due to the fact that New Horizons was very much a trend at the beginning of the pandemic. People who’d never played a video game were buying Switches just to play NH. As with all fads, it died down after several months, and a lot of people who hopped on the bandwagon will likely never touch the game again.

The other thing is that NH hasn’t been getting a lot of engaging content updates to keep people coming back. The summer update last year brought back a ton of people who’d stopped playing in spring, because it added new things to do. Since our updates are pretty much only new furniture, I don’t see a lot of people getting hyped enough to make a return.

Overall though, I don’t think it’s dying out. Trading websites, dodo code sites, and NH Discord servers are still wildly active. Trading and online play are still pretty prominent. It may have lost some popularity with the bandwagon fans, but NH has become so mainstream & popular that I think there will always be a community for it. I mean, take a look at New Leaf— it wasn’t nearly as successful or popular, but it still has a somewhat active community.

 

[Moritz]

Personally I think that a game making it past the 1 year mark with people still playing it daily is incredible.

Like, yesterday I bought pokemon snap, which costs the same as new horizons, and I've pretty much completed it already.
I'm not complaining that I've finished snap, it was worth the money. But when you compare the 2 games, it really shows how much value you get for your money in new horizons.

Its sad that it can't just last forever, but everything comes to an end at some point.
I dont know that I agree its "dying", but by the very nature of the game, animal crossing doesn't have a longer life span than a year. And a year is very impressive.

If it was a subscription game I would feel differently. But since the updates are free, I'm grateful for anything we get now all the holidays are in.

 

[Mick]

What happened to NH is that it got a big wave of hype, bringing in lots of people who'd never even heard of the series. It happens to a lot of games that suddenly become the new popular thing, and it's always temporary.

A lot of people are definitely done with this game and that's healthy if you ask me! Not everyone likes playing the same thing for hundreds of hours or for more than a few months. That isn't really to blame on the games themselves (although updates definitely can bring back some of that initial hype).

It's definitely not a dead game, though, far from it. There are fewer players, yes, but still a lot of people active. It just isn't as crazy as when seemingly everyone was playing.

 

[Fruitcup]

I feel like usually AC is a game where not many people make it past the year mark. Sometimes all of the mundane activities just aren't actioned packed or different enough for people to stay engaged. I also feel that many new players joined because of the original hype around the game and now that it's over not many people stuck around.
I've always played AC but this is the first time I've made it through a whole year with little to no breaks and I've completed a lot in my town so maybe those who liked the game also left because they feel like they finished their game.

 

[VanitasFan26]

You know its funny. I made a thread over a month ago about my worries and concerns about this game and I remember people saying "Oh there is nothing to worry about" and "Oh what you are talking about the updates will come" but I just need to really say how I really feel at the moment. I really hate to be a Debbie Downer, but we haven't seen anything "Surprising" or "New" so far this year. The updates this year just feel so sparse compared to last year. I really want to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt because they are trying to at least say that they are supporting the game, but what we got just now is another small update. Its fine to have new items, but again if you're like me and you played this game last year the events are going to be the same as before. Yes I know its traditional in AC games to have events repeated, thats not the issue I have here. What I have an issue with is how Nintendo still refuses to put out a trailer and gives us screenshots of what to expect and of course its just new items. Still no new features or anything else we haven't seen before.

Of course there is something to be happy about getting new items, but of course just like always its just another item that you will have fun for a few hours and get bored of it quickly. This does not surprise me one bit because I knew that these events like the May Day, Stamp Rally, and Wedding season was going to be returning and anyone who was hoping for a 2.0 update is going to be very disappointed. I don't know what else to say, but this game is really becoming more stale and boring in 2021. Truth be told I have taken a break from this game for the past few months and I want to get back into but it just doesn't give me a reason to play it again when it lacks new features and refreshing content to enjoy. All this speculation is really getting tiring and repetitive to the point where it doesn't really give my hopes up for anything. I love New Horizons, but I will have to say that its really getting stale and not much is going on because of the lack of new content and features.

 

[_Donut_]

Personally I think it's normal for any game to have a larger interest around launch and then settle down a little. As you said, most people (including me finally this week =D) have collected everything there is to do so that now leaves people to enjoy the game for it's core "feel" as in; talking to villagers, doing daily chores, working on your island & playing together, etc... and thus there will now be people who fell in love with the franchise and continue to play, people who'll play it on the "down low" (look at me with these cool kids words) and finally people who got their money's worth and moved on to other games.

I feel like there is still a very active community in trading & on the forums here even if not everything is actually IN game but just vibing with other members. I've also seen a video about there being some codes regarding a new nooklings shop & brewster hidden in the game so yeah I guess some big updates are still to come, feels like it indeed starts to be time to actually release them, though.

 

[0ni]

I agree with what other folks are saying here - the fact it's still got a fairly active player base 1 year on is impressive. A lot of games barely last past the first few months, and the ones that do usually have very active online elements. AC has it's online capabilities of course, but it's a lot more laid back, usually games with competitive play have people coming back for more - AC obviously doesn't have that so there isn't a draw to keep people coming back from that point of view. For other players this game (and past entries in the franchise) have a lot of longevity, but they have to be people that are generally committed to the AC play style.

I think what is happening now is less a dying franchise, and more a franchise thats player base is shrinking down to those committed players that are always going to be around and playing it in some capacity. It just feels extra stark this time around because of the absolute whirlwind of activity there was surrounding this game during the height of the pandemic. Like Lemoncrossing said, The game attracted a lot of players that maybe didn't even own switches before, or had never touched an AC game in the past. I imagine quite few of them aren't around playing anymore and aren't the type to be inclined to stick with a single game for such a long time.

I also feel AC will get a big update eventually, there is so much that can still be added. That will attract a lot of players back. I just don't know when that update will happen - could be soon, could be a ways away like the Welcome Amiibo update for New Leaf which released like 4 years after the base game lol.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I don’t feel like the game is dying, personally, far from it. I think it is pretty impressive how many people still play if not daily than multiple times a week.

the number of people who have played over 1000 hours of the game in a year is frankly amazing to me - how many games are there that truly get that amount of engagement from users in one year? (I realize many games have more bounded gameplay so it would not make sense)

I’ve played 1700 hours and am still playing daily. I have played a lot of games but few held my attention for long and I have never considered myself a serious gamer. I basically heard about the game because my husband was bored during the lockdown.

I think naturally many people who jumped on the fad will have stopped playing, as others have mentioned that is the nature of fads. but I think it brought a lot of new people into the player base as well. People also may still be engaged but have had more normal life responsibilities return which limits game play and/ or forum participation (this is also the case for me).

I also think the lower engagement on here is part of a natural cycle. When the game first came out you naturally had way more people looking to figure things out, excited to discuss every aspect, and needing/ wanting items and villagers. But now the standard answers we need are all well established, people either have most of what they want or are happy getting it on their own, and there is honestly only so many things to dissect and discuss (but look how excited we all still get to discuss our favorite villagers or a new update)

I see people still engaging here daily and each update brings a fresh flurry of discussion, that seems like just a settling into the long term lifecycle of the community.

But people still seem to care so much! To me even the fact that people are logging in to complain and express impatience shows how engaged people still are. If they’d really given up on the game they wouldn’t care enough to complain anymore!

 

[Chris]

I wouldn't consider it dying; in fact I'm actually amazed at how popular it still is one year on. Animal Crossing (like many simulation games) is one that many people tend to play in waves: taking interest in it for a few weeks, going away from a few months, coming back to it again, etc. Some people have still yet to discover the game too due to a lack of Nintendo Switch.

I only touch it now and then when I've specific goals in mind, but it's still lasted me longer than New Leaf - which I was pretty much done with by September 2013.

 

[IslaYuka]

But people still seem to care so much! To me even the fact that people are logging in to complain and express impatience shows how engaged people still are. If they’d really given up on the game they wouldn’t care enough to complain anymore!

Do you mean I'm complaining and expressing impatience or isn't that about me? I'm a bit confused lol.

And thank you all for the comments. It's really nice to see reassurance that the game is not actually dying!

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Do you mean I'm complaining and expressing impatience or isn't that about me? I'm a bit confused lol.

And thank you all for the comments. It's really nice to see reassurance that the game is not actually dying!

Oh my goodness, no no no! I did not even consider it could be read that way, because I did not see your thread as a complaint thread, more like a concerned conversation starter.

I just meant in general we see a lot of complaint threads these days, but I don’t think that indicates a dying of the game!

 

[skarmoury]

Echoing the other sentiments here — a year-old game with still a good amount of players is pretty impressive in itself. All games in general die at some point, some longer than others, and while it‘s okay to assume that a lot of the people who own ACNH don’t play it anymore, I wouldn’t consider it dying quickly or anything. I would say give it another year or two to worry about the game dying. With the constant updates so far the players still have a reason to go back to ACNH.

 

[King koopa]

I don't think it's dying because Nintendo is still updating it once a month. If it was dying, Nintendo wouldn't care at all and never update the game, which would make lots of people mad, including myself. They just started adding stuff in, so I think the game will probably last untill late 2023, early 2024.

 

[IslaYuka]

Oh my goodness, no no no! I did not even consider it could be read that way, because I did not see your thread as a complaint thread, more like a concerned conversation starter.

I just meant in general we see a lot of complaint threads these days, but I don’t think that indicates a dying of the game!

It's all good no worries! It was just misread on my part then so sorry about that.

 

[moo_nieu]

i dont think it will die until the next animal crossing game is released (hoping for vr crossing bc that would be really cool ;-; )

 

[coldpotato]

It is losing people for sure. None of my friends or family members play anymore and we all used to play regularly and set up times to visit each others islands and such. I've noticed a lot of twitch streamers or youtubers switch to other games to stream because of the burnout/boredom. The hardcore fans that do stick around are mostly grasping at any little thing they can do because of the lack of new gameplay. They redo their islands over and over again to try to entertain themselves. Even youtube channels that post news and commentary about the game have started posting datamine information in videos because of the lack of interesting update content.

It is kind of sad to see. I do hope Nintendo will release something big to get people excited about the game again.

 

[Moritz]

The hardcore fans that do stick around are mostly grasping at any little thing they can do because of the lack of new gameplay. They redo their islands over and over again to try to entertain themselves.

I'm going to have to disagree with this.
I dont think most people who still play daily are grasping to find anything to do.
I've never torn down my island to remake it.
I've changed parts I wasn't too fond of but thats totally the spirit of the game. Last time I did this was 2 months ago. Still playing daily.

I think lots of us are still genuinely enjoying the game.

 

[Khaelis]

Due to the pandemic, Animal Crossing introduced a lot of people to the series for various reasons. First timers wanting something to do, content creators on various sites milking it for content, etc.

The people who are still playing the games are the long-time fans of the series, which are people like us who stuck around.

 

[coldpotato]

I'm going to have to disagree with this.
I dont think most people who still play daily are grasping to find anything to do.
I've never torn down my island to remake it.
I've changed parts I wasn't too fond of but thats totally the spirit of the game. Last time I did this was 2 months ago. Still playing daily.

I think lots of us are still genuinely enjoying the game.

That's great. That was just my observation of hardcore fans/people I've seen who have been playing the game since release and are still playing.