Nintendo is ending service for another mobile game: Animal Crossing

Nintendo has announced it will be ending service for Animal Crossing smartphone game, Pocket Camp, and replacing it with a paid app which will preserve player data.

From November 29, 2024 – seven years after Pocket Camp launched – the current app will end service. Players will no longer be able to purchase microtransactions, and the monthly subscription service will also end ahead of this date.

A new version of Pocket Camp will release at the same time, allowing players to carry over their save data, according to Nintendo.

This paid app will remove all in-app purchases and the requirement for a constant internet connection. Save data will be carried over, but Leaf Tickets (used for purchases) will not.

The Pocket Camp closure is yet another indication of Nintendo’s lessening focus on mobile games.

Compared to other big publishers like Activision and Take-Two, which regularly see mobile make up more than half of their annual revenues, the platform has made up just a tiny percentage of Nintendo’s earnings since it started making mobile games in 2016.

Of the eight major mobile games the company has launched to date, it has now ended support for at least five, including Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

Fire Emblem Heroes is Nintendo’s most successful mobile game by a long distance, according to Appmagic data published by Mobilegamer.biz, earning Nintendo over $810m of the estimated $1.5bn it’s earned from mobile games, as of last year.

Mario Kart Tour overtook Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as Nintendo’s second biggest earner on mobile, having earned around $243m from 230m downloads, and around $2m per month.