Animal Crossingwas always a fairly well-known franchise, but the series' latest installment,Animal Crossing: New Horizons, propelled its popularity to new heights.Animal Crossing: New Horizonswas released in March 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since everyone was stuck at home back then, the video game industry experienced a huge commercial boom during this period. Out of all the franchises that had a major resurgence due to the stay-at-home orders, though,Animal Crossingwas among the most prominent.Animal Crossing: New Horizonssold over 47 million copies in roughly 5 years, comfortably surpassing 2012’sAnimal Crossing: New Leafin sales and becoming the second best-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time.
The Nintendo 3DS exclusive, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, is the second-best-selling installment in theAnimal Crossingfranchise. It sold around 13 million units worldwide, which is less than half of whatNew Horizonssold.
DespiteAnimal Crossing: New Horizons’s unprecedented success, Nintendo hasn’t shared even a hint of information about a potential sequel to the game. There are typically long gaps of time between the release of eachmainlineAnimal Crossinggame, so although Nintendo’s silence isn’t that surprising, it begs the question of when the company will ever return to the franchise. The Nintendo Switch 2 was launched only a month ago, and since there aren’t a lot of first-party exclusives announced for the system yet, now seems like the perfect time for Nintendo to reveal a new mainlineAnimal Crossinggame. Even if a successor toNew Horizonsisn’t released anytime soon, though, there are a lot of otherAnimal Crossing-esque games releasing on Switch 2 that kind of scratch the same itch.
There Are Plenty of Great Games Similar to Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch 2
The Nintendo Switch 2 Launched With Two High-Quality Life Simulation Games
Life simulation franchises likeAnimal Crossinghave always had a pretty prominent presence on Nintendo consoles, but in the last few years, it feels like there have been more high-quality games in the genre than ever before. The Nintendo Switch 2, in fact, launched with twocritically acclaimed life sim titles,Rune Factory: Guardians of AzumaandFantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.Rune Factoryis one of Japanese developer Marvelous' longest-running franchises, and although it has veered more into the RPG direction thanAnimal Crossing, it still shares many similar elements with the series.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, in particular, allows players to grow crops, build relationships with NPCs, and customize villages, among other things.
The other life sim game that was launched alongside the Switch 2, Level-5’sFantasy Life i, has a lot of the same gameplay concepts asRune Factory: Guardiansof Azuma. In this title, however, players are primarily tasked with rebuilding a damaged island using time travel and engaging in quests issued by local NPCS.Fantasy Life ihas a cute chibi art style, similar toAnimal Crossing, and it’s a worthy successor to the originalFantasy Lifeon the Nintendo 3DS.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is Like Animal Crossing But With More Exploration
In addition to these Switch 2 launch games, there are a handful of other modernAnimal Crossing-inspired titles that are playable viabackwards compatibility on Nintendo’s current-gen console. One of these titles, for example, isHello Kitty Island Adventure. Developed by Colorado-based studio Sunblink, this life simulation game was initially launched as an Apple Arcade exclusive a few years ago, but it finally made its way to Nintendo Switch and PC in early 2025.
The game is pretty similar toAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsin concept, but it has a lot more exploration-based gameplay.Hello Kitty Island Adventurefeatures 3D platformingand puzzle-solving segments, as well as some optional side activities, such as house furnishing and cooking.
Disney Dreamlight Valley Has Received Major Content Updates for Multiple Years
Gamers who are looking for a life simulation game that has received years of support and updates may want to check outDisney Dreamlight Valley, as well. This Gameloft-developed title lets players live in a fantasy world alongside theirfavorite Disney characters, from Wall-E and Aladdin, all the way to Mike Wazowski and Maleficent. WhileDisney Dreamlight Valleydoes place a greater emphasis on storytelling compared toAnimal Crossing, it is still very much a life simulation game at its core. Best of all, since the game still gets new content regularly (much likeHello Kitty Island Adventure), players will have a hard time running out of things to do.
