Animal Crossing 3.0 Update vs Switch 2 Upgrade: What’s the Difference?

Two big updates are coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the line between them is somewhat confusingly blurred. Several years after its last major update, New Horizons is expanding with 3.0, which will bring plenty of free content to the game. At the same time, a paid Switch 2 upgrade will arrive, which does a little more than just upgrade the graphics.

If you’re just looking to get the bulk of the new content, the short answer is that you don’t need to worry about the Switch 2 upgrade. Nintendo isn’t attempting to lock original Switch owners out of any key additions, so new items, storage features, and more will all be available for free. That being said, a couple of Switch 2 upgrade features are definitely attractive additions.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 Update Contents

Everything To Expect For Free

Animal Crossing New Horizons 3.0 update trailer showing a blue haired player character walking into the new hotel

Animal Crossing‘s 3.0 update promises a long list of additions, which were laid out in an official trailer available on the Nintendo of America YouTube trailer. The following changes are all coming to the game for free, regardless of platform:

Hotel
Slumber Island
Increased storage limit with 9000-item maximum
Resetti area reset feature
Bulk crafting
Crossover items with other Nintendo franchises and LEGO

The new hotel is one of the biggest content additions, featuring options to decorate guest rooms and potentially impress them with your design sensibility. Tickets can be earned at the hotel to make purchases at the hotel gift shop.

The other major change is the option to visit “Luna’s New Dream World” while sleeping, which provides access to Slumber Islands that can be customized to your heart’s content. A Slumber Island is essentially a blank canvas to work with, featuring extensive terraforming options, time of day selection, villager placement, and more. Players can build up to three Slumber Islands in different sizes and visit those of others in multiplayer.

New Horizons Switch 2 Upgrade Contents

Updated graphics for the nintendo switch 2 edition of animal crossing new horizons

Meanwhile, the Switch 2 upgrade features will require a specific paid upgrade. Unsurprisingly, the Switch 2 upgrade content won’t be available through any means on the original Switch. Switch 2 owners who don’t opt to purchase the upgrade will only have access to the standard 3.0 additions.

The Switch 2 upgrade features are as follows:

Enhanced resolution
Shorter load times
Joy-Con mouse controls
Megaphone
12-player online multiplayer

The Switch 2 upgrade editions all utilize specific Switch 2 hardware capabilities. The Joy-Con mouse controls can be used when placing and arranging furniture, which could make redecoration a good bit more efficient if you have a flat surface at hand. The megaphone uses the built-in microphone feature to allow players to call their villagers through a megaphone, a gimmick reminiscent of the Nintendo DS era.

Finally, the 12-player online multiplayer follows a trend established in previous Switch 2 upgrades, which have frequently focused on the Switch 2’s expanded online support. Having more than eight players on one island will require them all to have Switch 2 copies of the game. GameChat is also available for communicating with other players online, and connecting a camera allows for a display of a face cam above the Villagers’ heads.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch 2 Upgrade Price

Nintendo Isn’t Asking Much

Animal Crossing New Horizons player stands next to the cat Rover and waves

The Switch 2 upgrade for Animal Crossing 3.0 will cost $4.99, making it significantly cheaper than other paid Switch 2 upgrades for first-party games. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom each cost $9.99, for example, while Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Super Mario Party Jamboree charge $19.99 to bundle major expansions with the upgrade.

The $4.99 upgrade for New Horizons admittedly costs more than the free updates received by other first-party Switch 2 games, like Splatoon 3 and Super Mario Odyssey. These updates, however, tend to feature even fewer features, focusing on performance improvements and occasionally improving multiplayer support.

When To Expect The New Horizons Updates

The Release Date Is Close At Hand

Animal crossing new horizons character standing with a shovel and a hard hat in an empty location-1

Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 and the Switch 2 upgrade will be released simultaneously, launching on January 15, 2026. The free update should install automatically, while purchasing the upgrade will require a visit to the eShop. Based on the pattern of past updates, smaller patches will likely follow to address any bugs that the update introduces.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ Switch 2 upgrade features aren’t anything that Switch owners need to worry about missing, as many players aren’t likely to make use of anything beyond the graphical bump. The online multiplayer features are nice, but getting 12 friends with Switch 2s together sounds like a chore, and the megaphone is more of a fun gimmick than a real game-changer. For serial redecorators, the mouse controls may be the star of the show.

At any rate, the free 3.0 changes are the most exciting ones, and all Animal Crossing: New Horizons owners can look forward to those. There’s a lot to keep track of between Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 and the Switch 2 upgrade, but once you have it all straight, it’s certainly looking like an exciting time to be a fan.