Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold 13 million copies in just six weeks.
Nintendo
A notification sets my phone screen alight as I brush my teeth. A wave of panic brushes over me. The cause for concern isn’t the notification, or my molars, but the time. It’s 11: 56 p.m. Panic turns to somber resignation.
“Damn, Daniel,” I tell myself. “You forgot to water the plants.”
Not actual plants, virtual plants. In my Animal Crossing island. I’m trying to get my island star rating up, and spent hours earlier in the week organizing miscellaneous monuments, lining beaches with tropical coconut trees, and decorating the highlands with shrubbery and flowers.
The shrubbery and trees are easy. Give them enough space and they’ll grow just fine. But the flowers? It’s the flowers that get you. You’ll need to water those bad boys every day if you want them to grow. Think you’re getting even a 4-star island without populating it with dozens of floral friends? Fuhgeddaboudit.
Even if you don’t play Animal Crossing, you’ve probably heard a lot about it. The Nintendo Switch game sold over 13 million copies in just six weeks, making it more popular than even Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, and has even given the 2017 Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp iOS and Android game a second life. It’s a cartoonish life simulator that puts you on a dese