Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken Nintendo's laid-back life-sim franchise to incredible new heights, not only smashing sales records but also introducing more players to its welcoming world than ever before.
With the game recently celebrating its first anniversary, Japanese publication Famitsu has hosted a survey looking back over New Horizons' first year. The survey asked readers to share when they started playing the game, how long they play for each day and – most importantly – which villager is their favourite.
You can see all the rankings for yourself below (thanks, Nintendo Everything). Any surprises?
Who is your favourite villager?
– Dom (652 votes)
– Marshal (480 votes)
– Raymond (440 votes)
– Fang (236 votes)
– Judy (228 votes)
– Stitches (220 votes)
– Flurry (196 votes)
– Lolly (188 votes)
– Beau (176 votes)
– Lobo (164 votes)
When did you start playing?
– 47.7%: when the game was released
– 19.0%: within a month of release
– 11.8%: within three months of release
– 11.5%: within half a year of release
– 8.2% within the first year
– 1.3% after the first year
– 0.8% no response
What got you to start playing?
– 63.1% played a previous entry in the series
– 16.3% had an interest in the series
– 8.9% other
– 5.0% introduced from a friend
– 3.7% TV commercial
– 1.7% web/magazine articles (usually these are primer guides)
– 0.9% web ads
– 0.4% no response
How long do you play every day?
– 55.1% 1-3 hours
– 23.9% less than an hour
– 13.0% 3-5 hours
– 7.8% more than 5 hours
– 0.2% no response
What’s your favourite furniture series?
– Ironwood (879 votes)
– Space (708 votes)
– Antique (636 votes)
What’s your favourite seasonal event?
– Halloween (1,304 votes)
– Christmas (808 votes)
– Thanksgiving (652 votes)
Almost 4,000 people took the time to answer the questions above, with the majority of respondents being in their twenties.
Did you expect Dom to rule the rankings? Who would you have put on the top spot, and why is it Cranston? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks to Greatsong for the tip!
[source famitsu.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 40
Those villager popularity rankings are quite similar to the western tier list maintained on Animalcrossingportal.com.
The most recent top 10 features Marshal, Raymond, Sherb, Zucker, Judy, Fauna, Marina, Stitches, Beau, and Ankha.
That's five characters that overlap in popularity internationally.
Seven if you include the top 15, that include Dom and Lolly.
I’ve never met any of these. Billy is my best animal friend. I have not played for a long while now though. Got it at launch.
Marshal definitely deserved at least top 3
Wolfgang has been my number one since the GameCube days, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Judy best girl!
Marshal is best for me, i was lucky to get him at first campsite at the beginning.
He's now the longest serving villager, he even got special treatment with decor around his home 😂 him and Ankha are my favourite villagers.
Need more love for my boy Filbert
Where's the love for Phil? I really need to go visit him, it's been a while.
Shep! I really liked the guy from ACNL, and every time someone is at the campsite, I check to see if it is Shep.
I thought about getting the amiibo cards, but I gotta draw the line about my crazy some where!
Pictures would help. But my favs are the frogs and Kid Cat.
Paolo is the MVP
Ctrl+F "Molly". No results.
Y'all have no taste.
Lolly is cute though.
ACNH was my first venture into the series so don't really have favourites from previous games. Felt like the first few that appeared on my island became my favourites though; Axel, Ketchup and Hazel. I haven't actually played for months, but my daughter still plays daily and I think Axel and Ketchup are still there - I remember being a little disappointed when she said Hazel had left
I think Dom is hideous! I prefer Pietro or Muffy from the sheep. ❤️
Pietro is my favorite, but Dom is a close second (I like the sheep a lot)
The fact that this poll is biased toward villagers new to New Horizons and doesn't even have Audie makes me sad.
Zucker FTW! ❤ he's ma boi.
yay Marshal is in top 3.
Interesting statistics. As much as I love the game I usually play less than one hour a day now.
Raymond is overrated imo... but Dom and Marshal are sweet little marshmallow boys and I love them
Good to see Flurry is up there!
Had Marshall at my campsite but did not like him that much, then my daughter told me he was rare.
This was my first AC game, b/c nobody of any intelligence is counting amiibo Festival, so I'm not good w/ the names, would have been nice if the article could have added some pics. Maybe on Nintendo Life 2.0?
Anyway my favorite was Katt. A girl I could be friends w/o benefits with. For the benefits there was obviously Playboy bunny Tiffany. But she didn't stick around long. Also dug her Playboy Mansion home esthetic.
As I said I'm not good w/ names. Teddy was also a great bud but I'm guessing starters don't make the list?
1 of the "boys into bugs" characters w/ the toy playroom home was cool for awhile. Not the pig or the penguin. Man my brain is swiss cheese.
Broccolo. Found a list w/ pics, glad he was near the front alphabetically. 😂 "Lazy"? They're kids who liek to play w/ bugs, they get "LAZY" as their type? Well that's some adults' labeling BS nonsense right there. 😝
https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Animal_Crossing:_New_Horizons_characters
Looking over the list I only let 2 types live on my island.
Lazy, which I never saw them anything like that, how about "fun" instead?
Peppy. Mainly Rosie, who I just saw as a blue Katt, but apparently Katt is "sisterly". Explains the "w/o benefits" feeling. 😂
Just looked down the list of hobbies - nature, fitness, play, education, music. Is that it, 5 hobbies? There are 400 characters w/ only 8 personalities and they only get 5 hobbies? So basically the game only needs like 40 characters - 5x8 - not 400? 🤷♂️
Oh well, it was a fun year, but the pandemic is over, time to move on. See ya on the flip side guys & gals. ✌
No I don't agree. ONLY one I like is Dom.
Dang no love for my boy Kabuki even in Japan.
@KateGray marshal is equally overrated. Especially given his species. There are squirrels both cuter like lolly and squirrels cooler like static that I don't get how he stands out at all.
@ToadBrigade I started playing at launch and Ketchup was one of my original víllagers. She's still here and she is such a doll. I've already gotten her framed picture and have thought about letting her move on when she ask. But I can't find it in my heart to do it.
No Bam, Vesta, Lily, or Rizzo You guys have no taste
@johnvboy They're all the same, no rarity. Had him in my town but he wanted to move. I ain't stopping them.
I love Drake. Peaches is a close second.
Speaking of Marshal, I was recently ready to have him replace Frita via amiibo invite. But my kids vetoed the idea on the third day. So I then, at the last minute, decided to bring Whitney on to the island. I love her. She's got such great sass
I also finally got the amiibo for Teddy, who was my best bud in New Leaf. So now I feel a sense of completeness when it comes to my villagers. A real great bunch we have
Dom is so overrated..
The amount of Dom art I've seen is massive, so it makes that he's No. 1 for Japan. Some of it's a little weird though.
I have Dom too since someone was giving him away while I still have slots to fill on my island. Same thing happened with Beau.
I've also got Marshal and had Stitches in NL. Nice to see classics like Fang in the list too.
Shame there's no more love for Merengue or Elvis. I mean, he's the king!
Ankha will always be #1 for me.
Those of us that play Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (free app) definitely see less personalities from villagers as the other versions get to see. They generally say similar things, don’t come across as lazy or rude. It’s interesting to me reading villager descriptions. Anyway- I’ve found all villagers to be pleasant. My caretaker is Apollo, so I guess he’s my favorite. I generally really like the first ones I met though. If you all haven’t tried Pocket Camp on your phone or tablet (it’s beautiful on my tablet!) you really should!!
Pretty much all of them were in my town / island. That means, I have to low the dust from my game since I wasn't able to play lately... which is a month in other words.
@Daniel36,
I was told some are more difficult to obtain because there is no Amiibo card for them, so you have to wait for them to turn up.
Oh Dom !!!!!!
The love of my life. Unfortunately i had to let him go. He was my starting villager .Because of that, his home would never evolve and it really bothered me. I really miss him. But i promise myself, 1 day i will find him, and invite him back.
@johnvboy Oh yeah, didn't take amiibos into consideration. Well, those cards are rare too anyways.
@Daniel36,
I have to buy the replica cards, some of them are awesome quality .
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