Nintendo confirmed that "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" would receive frequent post-release updates, most of them being based around real-life events. On the week of the game's release, Nintendo pushed an update in preparation for the game's "Bunny Day" event in April, which is loosely based on Easter. A second update was released at the end of April, including events for "Nature Day" (based on Earth Day) and May Day, and the return of "Animal Crossing: New Leaf" special character Leif as a gardening supplies peddler. A third update was announced at the end of June for summer and split into two parts. Released at the beginning of July, the first wave of the update included the return of diving from "", long-time popular character Pascal, and an alternate version of Gulliver. The second wave of the summer update is scheduled for release early August 2020. "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" has received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic, becoming the highest-rated game in the series on the website. However, the game has been subject to review bombing due to its handling of Switch profiles and multiplayer. Jack Rear of "The Telegraph" praised the game, writing that its elements "[add] up to the perfect DIY recipe for the most chilled out, relaxing, and engaging life simulator ever." Sarah Fields of Game Rant wrote that, "[i]n addition to making full use of the Switch's graphical capabilities, "New Horizons" fixes a myriad of annoyances and problems that "New Leaf" had", and called "New Horizons" "a laid-back game that ultimately lets the player choose what they're going to do at any given moment". "New Horizons" sold over 1.88million physical copies at launch in Japan, breaking the record held by "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield" for biggest Switch game debut in the region. The game sold 720,791 physical copies in its second week in Japan, selling more than "" did in its first week. , the game has sold 3,895,159 physical copies in Japan. In North America, it was the best-selling game of March 2020, becoming the second best-selling game of 2020 and surpassing the lifetime sales of all previous "Animal Crossing" games. "New Horizons" generated the third highest known launch month sales of any Nintendo-published game (since The NPD Group began tracking video game sales from 1995), after "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" (2018) and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (2008).