Animal Crossing, originally released in Japan asDobutso no Mori(Animal Forest), has since grown to become an internationally recognized hit. Animal Crossing asks players toslow down, take a deep breath, and enjoy a wholesome experience.This places the series among other life and social simulation games. However, gorgeous graphics, beautiful music, and iconic characters all cause it to stand out among its competitors.
Get Me To This Real-Life Animal Crossing Aquarium Immediately
In a stoke of genius, Nintendo made the coziest game even cozier.
There are some truly great, beloved Animal Crossing games floating around. Unfortunately, there are somenot-so-great ones, too.Most fans would prefer to forget some of the spin-off games,for example. On this list, we’ve compared ourfavorite entries in the seriesalong with itsrare misses and ranked them based on their Metacritic Scores.
Updated by Erin Rice on July 22, 2025:This update includes information on which Animal Crossing games sold the most and reorganized the list to make reading easier for the reader.
9Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Metacritic Score: 46
Amiibo Festivalis the only entry in the Animal Crossing series that crosses the line from"just mediocre"to"truly bad".Conceptualized as a slightly friendlier version of Mario Party, it ends up just beingplain old boring.The main trouble with Amiibo Festival is that it removes the one most exciting thing about Mario Party — its competitiveness. No longer will youyell at your friendson the couch, it’ll be more likeslightly upset grumbling.
Amiibo Festival was, notably,packaged with several Amiibos:two full figures, and three “Amiibo cards” representing Animal Crossing villagers. While it’s nice to have some figures included with your game,Amiibo Festival integrates them in a clunky way.It ends up feeling forced, as players are constantly remindedhow much better the experience would be if the Amiibos weren’t there at all.
Why It Met This Ranking:
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
8Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Metacritic Score: 66
Happy Home Designerwas a 3DS game focused on (as the title says) designing homes. Itobviously isn’t a traditional Animal Crossing experience,hence its relatively low ranking. Despite that, viewing it as ahome designgame rather than anAnimal Crossinggame,it isn’t as criticized as the previous entry.
For the first time, all the furniture in the series was easily available,making home decoration a breeze.The game also implementeda new drag-and-drop design system,which influenced the simplified decorating in New Horizons. Happy Home Designer wasa big hit for fans of Animal Crossing and interior design.Others had trouble getting into it, and because it was a standalone game, Happy Home Designerdidn’t do all that well on the market.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
7Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Metacritic Score: 72
When this mobile game came out, fans werehungryfor a new Animal Crossing. The other new games available at the time, both on WiiU, wereAmiibo Festival(extremely underwhelming) andAnimal Crossing Plaza(more like ascreensaverthan anactual game). So, unless you were still enjoyingNew Leafon the 3DS,Pocket Campwas the only decent option for a new Animal Crossing experience.
Although itdefinitely isn’t a traditional Animal Crossing,the game isactually not half bad. It has a surprising number of features, including fishing, bug catching, decorating, and so on. The main downside is that Pocket Camp also has its fair share offree-to-play features, such astimed eventsandmicrotransactions.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
6Animal Crossing: City Folk
Metacritic Score: 73
City Folkis the series' entry on the Nintendo Wii, and while it isn’t a bad game by any means, it did little to innovate. Even in terms of graphics, City Folk felt an awful lot likean updated version of Animal Crossing on the GameCube.
Persona 5 Scene Brilliantly Recreated Using Animal Crossing
A great cast and fantastic attention to detail come together in this entertaining crossover.
One thing added by City Folk is, of course,the city:a hub filled with shops and villagers. It may be a nice-looking area, but even the city hasvery little new to offer.There are shops, but there are nonewshops, really. There are some other small places to visit, but it won’t be long before players grow bored and justreturn to their life in the small village.Unfortunately, City Folk is themost forgettable of all the mainline Animal Crossing games.
Animal Crossing: City Folk
5Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise
Metacritic Score: 82
Happy Home Paradiseis a DLC forAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, and thespiritual successor to Happy Home Designer.It builds on and refines the success ofDesignerwith plenty of new features. Also, since it uses the gorgeous graphics of New Horizons,Happy Home Paradise is a treat for the eyes as well.
Because it’s a DLC rather than its own game, it integrates amazingly with New Horizons.Features from Happy Home Paradise carry over to the main game,and the player can invite villagers from their island to their “vacation homes” in Happy Home Paradise. All in all, it’s asolid title and a more-than-worthy successorto the previous game.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise
4Animal Crossing: Wild World
Metacritic Score: 86
Wild Worldis the series’beloved entry on the Nintendo DS.It condensed the Gamecube game down to handheld size, which wasvery impressive at the time.Wild World also built on the success of the Gamecube version with abunch of new features.The observatory, the cafe, the hair salon, online play, and more are allseries of mainstays that were introduced in Wild World.Unfortunately,its 3D graphics have aged somewhat poorly.
Wild World also removed some key features of the game, like holidays, which wereseriously cut down.It attempted to introduce things like outdoor decorating with designs that could be laid on the ground. These, and some other features, feltclunky at best due to the obvious limitations of the DS.Still, Wild World was impressive for its time and isremembered fondly by many fans.
3Animal Crossing: Population Growing
Metacritic Score: 87
Animal Crossing: Population Growing(known as just “Animal Crossing” to most fans) wasthe first Animal Crossing game released in America.It was actually a port ofDobutso no Mori (Animal Forest), an older Japanese game. The English port introduced some new features, but it’s mostly unchanged from the original game on the Nintendo 64.
The chill, quirky atmosphere established in Population Growing hasnever been matched by any other game.Maybe it’s nostalgia speaking, butPopulation Growing will always feel unique and amazing.A lot of its features (the dump, the wishing well, etc.) were cut out, never to be seen again. Its music has aweird tonethat simply isn’t present in newer games. For many of us, it was our first exposure to this type of game, andit will always be special.
Animal Crossing
2Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Metacritic Score: 88
Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS was abreath of fresh airfor the series. After City Folk failed to really innovate, it seems Nintendo reassessed the Animal Crossing series. They came up with a game that feltnew and fresh without straying too far from the formula.New Leaf introducedawesome new graphics and mechanicsand kept many players glued to their 3DS playing it years after its release.
For the first time in New Leaf, players could take on the role of mayor of their small town. With building projects and ordinances,mayors made a noticeable impact on their world.The experience felt smooth and refined. While New Horizonsis overwhelmed with options,New Leaf feels likethe sweet spot in between.The customization isn’t so extensive that it’s overwhelming; it’s just right.
Animal Crossing New Leaf
1Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Metacritic Score: 90
New Horizonsfamously dropped at a time when people were stuck indoors. Because it offered a serene outdoor getaway, it took the world by storm,introducing countless new fans to the Animal Crossing series.It also feels fresh, with plenty of new twists on the existing formula, notablylandscapingandoutdoor decoration.New Horizons isbreathtakingly gorgeous,with new graphics that still feel appropriate for the series.
The game featuressome beloved featuresfrom previous games, like swimming, the café, Katrina the fortune teller, and more. However, it also added some interesting new features such as Nook Miles, Resident Services, the ability to increase Island Ratings, and so much more. This mixture of old and new features helped solidify this game’s place on this list.
