How to update Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Under most circumstances, games will update on their own when you attempt to launch them. When the update is recent, the process isn’t automatic. Players sometimes need to make the game update. The latter is the case for some Animal Crossing: New Horizons players and the new Summer Update Wave 1 on the Nintendo Switch. 

The Nintendo Switch is very good about telling players when it needs to run an update. Usually, it locks players out of the game until the update has been completed, alerting them when they attempt to launch the title. If the Switch doesn’t update a game automatically, often something that can happen when the update is still new, it can leave eager players confused. Forcing the game to update is simple enough.

To force Animal Crossing: New Horizons to update:

• Select the game in the main menu, but do not launch the title 
• Hit the “+” button to open Options
• In the Options menu, you should see the option to update the title.
• Select the update.

This works for any Nintendo Switch game with an update that may not have registered with the system right away.

After telling the game to update, the Switch will begin downloading it and updating the file. This process is the same as any other update. You will see a progress bar on the game in the main menu indicating how much time is left in the process.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Summer Update Wave 1 is not very big and shouldn’t take too long, provided you have decent internet. 

Once the update is complete, launch the title.