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Animal Crossing has a long and storied history. The franchise has only gotten bigger and arguably better since its debut in 2001. It could be argued that each iteration has been built upon and improved from the previous one. Animal Crossing is known for its villagers and they can often be what makes or breaks a release.
There are games that have better villager rosters than others, though. Each title can often make up for gameplay changes in other places, but when it comes to the villagers, there's a pretty clear hierarchy. Here's how the games stack up based on the villagers they have.
Best Animal Crossing games by villagers
5. Animal Crossing
There's no shame in being at the bottom of this list when it's also taken into consideration that this is the first game in the franchise. All game franchises strive to make bigger and better releases every time, so if the first release doesn't get improved upon, it's either the best game in history or the sequels failed. In this case, the sequels improved on the villager roster from the first game and everything continued trending upwards, which is great for Animal Crossing.
4. Animal Crossing: City Folk
City Folk isn't a bad game, it just didn't improve much on the previous game. There are also a couple of notable omissions with this release, including Bubbles, Ozzie and Sylvia. It also has the dubious distinction of coming before the two best releases, New Leaf and New Horizons.
3. Animal Crossing: Wild World
Wild World expanded more than its successor City Folk. The villagers here, many of whom are now staples of the franchise, were fan favorites. The game wasn't the best in the franchise and quite honestly, these games have been hit or miss when it comes to holding up over time. However, one thing that does keep players coming back to previous games is the villagers they love, and that applies here too.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
New Horizons grew so popular that Puma collaborated with Nintendo to create an exclusive line of sneakers together. New Horizons also boasts the most expansive roster in the franchise with over 400 villagers in the game. There are so many villagers that it feels near impossible for subsequent sequels to top that amount. The only problem that holds it back from being at the top spot are a few glaring absences. Most notably, Katrina and Brewster's inexplicable absence knocked New Horizons down a peg. If and when Brewster finally arrives, this may change.
1. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
New Leaf takes the top spot thanks in part to the fact that there are only minimal misses on the roster. Fan favorites aren't omitted and the group of characters that inhabited this game but didn't make it to New Horizons were really good. Many players consider this game to be the best in the franchise, and it's hard to disagree when looking at the roster.
Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of its writer.
