This past year, Animal Crossing: New Leaf made big waves in Japan as Nintendo’s highest-selling Nintendo 3DS title to date, and not just as a retail packaged game.
Back in January, Nintendo reported that download sales of Animal Crossing: New Leaf via the Nintendo eShop had crossed 700,000 copies, owing to them advertising the download version of the game on TV. Now, it looks like some of that same digital success might be replicated in the U.S. as well.
Speaking with analysts at E3 this week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said, “The success of this title is crucial for the future of Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. and European markets. Fortunately, many pre-orders of the game have been placed at retailers both in the U.S. and in Europe, and it has received very good review scores.”
Iwata elaborated: “Animal Crossing: New Leaf was launched in the U.S. on Sunday, June 9 and is having an immediate impact. The digital version of the game set a new record for launch day sales in the Nintendo eShop and sales of Nintendo 3DS hardware were nearly four times greater than the previous week.”
Hopefully, Nintendo will share sales figures for the game alongside next month’s NPD sales report, as they’ve done with other games such as Fire Emblem: Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.
