Why Animal Crossing is the secret tool we all need for good mental health

By Charlotte Brown

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is without a doubt the game of the year. With its release timed coincidentally with the start of the pandemic (it was available to buy from March 20th, as the UK began lockdown on March 23rd), you will have seen many, MANY social media posts and recommendations from friends about this cute little animal-themed sandbox. Today, I’m going to evaluate why Animal Crossing is both a classic game and an incredible tool for anyone struggling with their mental health.

For anyone who hasn’t played it, the wholesome gameplay of Animal Crossing: New Horizons sees you move to an abandoned island with a few humanoid animals in order to build a brand new life. You create houses for animal villagers and befriend them, collect local wildlife to display in the museum, build various shops and meet special guests, and ultimately customise everything to become your own personal village. This style of gameplay has been done before but the Animal Crossing series has been around since the early 2000s and could be considered as the pioneer of this genre.

If this description boosts your serotonin, I’m not surprised. It sounds like a perfect escapist dream for all of us stuck inside for half the year. The latest instalment in the franchise has sold at least 22.4 million units and is now the second-highest selling game of all time in Japan, so it’s clear that the game has been a resounding success.

I first considered Animal Crossing’s impact on mental health after watching a YouTube video by Boldly Wired two years ago. This man got hooked on the previous instalment, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, during the summer he found out he had depression. The video describes his emotional journey with the game and how he didn’t want to go outside or do anything until Animal Crossing gently helped him to get back on track. The reasons he gave for this were that, firstly, it gave him something to do and look forward to. When depression took that away from him, he could still come back to Animal Crossing daily and talk to villagers, attend events, grow his fish and bug collection and more. The villagers were ‘people’ he could talk to and form bonds with when he otherwise felt very isolated. The game also provided a nice balance between the negatives (paying off debt, having to gain trust from NPCs) and the positives in-game while he felt like real life was weighted too negatively. Finally, doing the game’s daily tasks provided him with a routine to look forward to, buying him time until the rough patch ended and he could get professional help for his mental health issues.

Importantly, he did stress that playing a game is in no way a substitute for real life interaction or help, but Animal Crossing helped him get to the point mentally where he could receive the help he needed. This video really stuck with me when I first watched it. I fully agree with his points and I relate to them strongly - when I was younger and similarly feeling down and lonely, I looked at my Animal Crossing game as a source of connection when I otherwise had none.

This point particularly applies to quarantine. I personally think that quarantine happening when it did boosted the game’s popularity because of all the reasons above. Many people did feel isolated and despondent, possibly anxious about the state of the world and the future. Animal Crossing: New Horizons still provides the social interaction and daily positive tasks that it did all those years ago when I was a child, and therefore was likely a great comfort to everyone who bought it in these trying times. I know I definitely got a lot out of it: working towards making my island what I wanted it to be, all while being supported by my friends in the form of cartoon animals, made quarantine infinitely more bearable and kept me from spiralling into a worse mental health state.

Other articles have picked up on this too. A piece by the New York Times included a quote from Mr. Gorordo, a former heroin addict. “On Sunday night, I got onto my island, I opened it up, within an hour I had four friends, two colleagues, and two clients in recovery who were all hanging out on this island and having a mini support meeting,” he said. “So much of recovery from addiction or mental health issues is connection. With so much of us trapped in our houses right now, meeting up virtually has us support each other in this game in a way we haven’t, being self-isolated and in quarantine.”

A Metro article provided an alternative perspective to the idea that the game has a positive impact on mental health. The author suggests that the idealist style of the game can make it feel hollow or create dissatisfaction in the player when they realise their fantastical in-game lifestyle would be impossible to have in real life. Realistically, most of us can’t pay our debts off in a few days, buy a house or enjoy nature as much as we may want to. I understand this point of view but I also think that this is why, as Boldly Wired stated in his video, the game should be used as a starting point to better mental health only. As with everything, it should be played in moderation, but I don’t think that fact decreases its value as a joyful escapist support when our mental health might be suffering.

In conclusion, I do think Animal Crossing has done a lot of good for a lot of people’s mental health, including my own. I come back to the franchise again and again in hard times, and twenty years down the line from its original release, I think it’s a timeless and beloved classic. As term starts again and the stress of studying returns, you know you will be able to find me in bed with my Nintendo Switch, once again enjoying a simpler and happier world with my animal friends.