Animal Crossing 2026 Return Has Gamers Praying

Animal Crossing fans are praying for the series’ return in 2026, ahead of a new Nintendo Direct announced for later this week.

Earlier this week, Nintendo announced that a Nintendo Direct would be held on Friday, 12th September, offering a first look at upcoming games coming to the Switch 2.

It was the update every Nintendo fan wanted to hear, as a major Nintendo Direct for first-party games hasn’t been held since April. And with the Switch 2’s upcoming releases drying up a little, it seems about time to see what the company’s 2026 schedule looks like.

While we don’t know yet what games will be included in the upcoming Direct, it’s probably going to be quite Mario-focused, with the series’ 40th anniversary also landing this week.

It’s quite likely we’ll also get a date for Metroid Prime 4, which is still slated for 2025 but doesn’t have a concrete release date yet.

Nintendo fans are hoping for an Animal Crossing return though, over five years after the last game was released.

“I feel like Animal Crossing could be the choice since the last one sold super well,” reads one comment on Reddit.

“I think they’ll want Animal Crossing out by next summer,” another comment reads. “And while I don’t think we will get 3D Mario in this direct, they probably have another decently big Mario project planned to tie in with the movie.”

“Not saying Animal Crossing will be here but it is 100% being worked on,” reads another. “New Horizons sold almost 45 million copies, the next game has to be a very high priority for them.”

It’s worth remembering that Nintendo is also releasing Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream next year, which is a social life game similar to Animal Crossing.

While that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be a new Animal Crossing game revealed in the Direct, it’s possible that Nintendo might be cooking that up for a little later on.

As for what seems a bit more likely, I imagine we’ll see some Mario-related things for the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.

We know that the animated film sequel is deep in production, with a release date of April 2026, so a small teaser is possible. And it’s been a while since we’ve had a new 3D Mario game, so I can’t see Nintendo not showing off something like that for such a special occasion.