Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a social simulation game developed and published by Nintendo in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch; it is the fifth main entry in the Animal Crossing series. In New Horizons, the player controls a character who moves to a deserted island after purchasing a getaway package from Tom Nook, accomplishes assigned tasks, and develops the island as they choose. They can gather and craft items, customize the island, and develop it into a community of anthropomorphic animals. Wikipedia

Research exclusive to this game

Benti, Behailu Shiferaw, and Georg Stadtmann. “B|Orders in Motion in the Video Game Industry: An analysis based on Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 2022 (2021). Border Studies Game Spaces

Pearce, Katy E., Jason C. Yip, Jin Ha Lee, Jesse J. Martinez, Travis W. Windleharth, Arpita Bhattacharya, and Qisheng Li. “Families playing animal crossing together: Coping with video games during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Games and Culture 17, no. 5 (2022): 773-794. Collaborative Play COVID-19

Tristan M. Simmons, Sercan Şengün. “Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Its Popularity During COVID-19 Pandemic.” In: Newton Lee (ed.) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games, Cham, Sweden: Springer International Publishing. 2021. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_435-1 COVID-19 History of Games

Research that includes this game in its sample

Sgandurra, Sabrina A. “Fight. Heal. Repeat: A Look at Rhetorical Devices in Grinding Game Mechanics.” Simulation & Gaming 53, no. 4 (2022): 388-399. Game Design Grinding