Switch Sports Is Now Getting More Extended Support Than Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Nintendo has revealed that Nintendo Switch Sports is getting a basketball update on Tuesday, June 9. While the free update was announced last month, a release date wasn’t mentioned until now.

The basketball minigame is straightforward, where players can use motion controls to score as many baskets as they can in the three-point challenge. Four players can also compete against each other in a five-streak battle or three-point-contest, as well as play two-on-two matches.

Nintendo Switch Sports included six sports at launch, which were volleyball, badminton, bowling, soccer, chambara, and tennis. After launch, Nintendo added full soccer motion controls as well as golf. Now, more than two years since its release, it’s finally getting basketball.

To put that in perspective, Nintendo Switch Sports is getting new content even further after launch than Animal Crossing: New Horizons did. That may come as a surprise, given that Nintendo Switch Sports sold 13.11 million copies as of March 31, 2024, compared to Animal Crossing New Horizon’s 45.3 million sales figure.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched in April 2020 and stopped receiving any further content after November 2021 with the Happy Home Paradise update, and has since been only getting patches to fix bugs.

Nintendo Switch Sports launched in April 2022. In GameSpot’s Nintendo Switch Sports review, we said, “Nintendo’s latest motion-controlled sports game resparks the magic of playing with others, but not without a few fumbles along the way.”