Today marks 25 years since the arrival of the Animal Crossing series, and to celebrate this very special occasion, Nintendo has rolled out an update for its latest entry Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is available on the Switch and Switch 2.

This bumps the game up to Version 3.0.2. Nintendo has revealed on social media how this patch ships with a commemorative leaf item to celebrate the anniversary. You’ll receive this item via your mailbox once you’ve downloaded and installed the latest game update.

Additionally, Nintendo also shared the following Doubutsu no Mori packaging design (based on the original Japanese release), which you can display in-game:

Here are the full patch notes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0.2 on the Switch and Switch 2 (via Nintendo support):

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Version 3.0.2 (13th April 2026)

General updates

• A commemorative item for the 25th anniversary of the Animal Crossing series has been added. Please check the in-game mailbox to receive it.
• Fixed an issue in hotel guest rooms where furniture placement or guest behavior could prevent exiting the room.
• Fixed an issue where crafting multiple items at once using a DIY recipe requiring six types of materials could sometimes be completed even without sufficient materials.
• Fixed an issue where a dung beetle appearing on a snowball could remain on-screen after the snowball disappeared.
• Fixed an issue where items could pop out of a rock before the shovel made contact when hitting it.
  • This issue was addressed in Ver. 3.0.1, but could still occur under certain conditions, so it has been fixed again.
• Fixed an issue where bringing custom designs created by the player to a Slumber Island could prevent them from being displayed at Able Sisters or uploaded to the Custom Design Portal.
• Fixed an issue where glowing spots on the island would not appear lit when viewing the island from the plane while returning from another island.
• Fixed an issue where villagers who had promised to visit the player’s home could sometimes appear in unnatural locations inside the house.
• Other adjustments and corrections were made to improve the game play experience.

Changes to DLC

The following issues related to the paid DLC “Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise” have been fixed.

• Fixed an issue where animals requesting vacation homes would stop appearing on the beach even when some animals still do not have vacation homes.

As a bonus, Nintendo has also shared some Animal Crossing anniversary artwork, which you can see at the top of this post.

Apart from this update for New Horizons today, Nintendo has added the Animal Crossing GameCube soundtrack to its Nintendo Music mobile app. Earlier this year, Nintendo released a major update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a Switch 2 Edition of the game.