Thinking that part of Animal Crossing demographics purchase video games and consoles the same way that COD/FIFA players do is kinda weird.
Historically you can look at the Wii. Wii Sports and Wii Fit sold a lot of consoles and video games to demographics not associated with video gaming, it's kinda the same with Animal Crossing since Microsoft, Sony and PC focused studios are largely devoted to genres and games targetting very narrow demographics. Games that aren't marketed to women, older people, or kids. When looking at Animal Crossing, what exactly are the alternatives on the market? Girl and women gamers have been completely ignored simply because large pubs decided a long time ago that they wouldn't pay to purchase a console. This is why I think looking at past trends is a bit of a waste of time, even the audience for Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart 8, Zelda are all very different compared to Animal Crossing.
Also, no one can really deny that compared to prior entries social media has helped the game explode in popularity it's 3rd and 5th in recent NPD months and has over 50% digital attach rate in the West meaning that we are seeing about 1/2 of the real story in the NPD discussion. To deny that it's a pretty unprecedented situation that was obviously aided by COVID is definitely not what I aiming at but at the same time not every game can go out and sell over 20 million copies World Wide in four months.
Just look at its sales in places like Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, France, Spain in most of those markets it was in 2nd place in July - this is 3 months after it's launch.
I think some are greatly underestimating the impacts of this type of software long term, similarly to how Ring Fit is being underestimated as a hardware driver nearly a year after it's release. I have said previously that when looking at 2020, we should remember where gaming was during the 2007 Financial Crash and the years that followed. Animal Crossing is great escapism for boys, girls, teenagers, women, men, and even the elderly. While Ring Fit Adventure still hasn't been fully marketed by Nintendo, these two franchises are enough to ensure software and hardware-wise Nintendo ends up the top company this holiday regardless of what Sony and Microsoft do. And this will be the case in a lot of the biggest video game markets in the World including the US.
So while arguments about additional money during a financial crisis do come-up, I do have a question to everyone - which console will be the cheapest tp purchase this holiday? Will consumers hit by recisions and COVID purchase the latest AAA console with $70 AAA games or will they choose something less expensive that fits into different types of lifestyles and caters to all types of people?
2020 will be another record-breaking year in the video game industry and Nintendo, Animal Crossing & Ring Fit Adventure could very well be the top three stories at the end of the day.
New Horizon / Ring Fit NPD Position
- March: #1 / n/a
- April: #3 / n/a
- May: #3 / #835
- June: #3 / #5
- July: #5 / #6
There is one weird discrepancy I just noticed in June the NPD Report said Ring Fit is at #7 but the latest tweet for July it had the previous month as Ring Fit at #5 place. This further strengthens the argument as the historic precedent from the Wii repeating itself. And actually Nintendo has managed to have two very popular games that appeal to the widest possible demographic at the same time. We haven't even seen Ring Fit's actual potential as Nintendo has barely advertised it at the level they could if they were confident they could manufacture enough copies. This will greatly change this holiday, and like I've theorized already there will be major updates for the two games to bring back attention to them prior to or during December.
