NFL Team Uses Animal Crossing: New Horizons To Tease Season Schedule

The explosive sales success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons means we're seeing it adopted outside the usual video game circles, from well-known figures like actor Danny Trejo and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now we can add NFL teams to that list, after the Detroit Lions used the game to tease its upcoming season schedule.

The tweet from the official Lions account is accompanied by a video introduced by Tom Nook. "There's only a single announcement today, but it's a big one," Nook says. "Yes, yes! It's been a long time coming but we are thrilled to finally be able to announce the Detroit Lions 2020 season schedule! We can't wait to spend our Sundays between the lines, but before we make it that far please enjoy this video presentation we put together for you."

The video that follows is a Villager decked out in custom-made Detroit Lions gear, doing things like burying a stuffed bear to represent its September 13 game against the Chicago Bears or visiting Redd's sketchy-looking ship (donned with a new flag) to represent the November 8 game against the Minnesota Vikings. It's all very cute and wholesome, and a followup tweet shares custom design codes for Lions jerseys.

Nintendo recently released its software sales figures, revealing that Animal Crossing has sold 11 million copies in just its first 11 days on the market. That rocketed it to a spot on the Switch best-sellers list, just behind games that have been out much longer like Pokemon Let's Go. Animal Crossing has caught a lot of mainstream interest, especially as a friendly, relaxing game that gives some social interaction in the midst of distancing due to the coronavirus.

"New Horizons has a slower pace even than other Animal Crossing games, and at times, that can feel unnecessarily restrictive," Kallie Plagge wrote in GameSpot's Animal Crossing review. "But there's still plenty to do, and each of those activities feeds into the next brilliantly for a rewarding and relentlessly cheerful experience. New Horizons certainly came at the right time, and its strengths are particularly comforting right now. I'm as excited to see what random events await me each morning as I am glad to have it during hard times, and that's sure to keep me coming back for the foreseeable future."