Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Every fact on this page applies to update 3.0.3, the one version tested. Other versions may behave differently.
No emulator needed: Animal Crossing: New Horizons runs natively on the Apple chip. How nxnative compares with emulators
Running through nxnative
How Animal Crossing: New Horizons runs
Animal Crossing: New Horizons plays on the iPhone at 30 fps, the same frame rate as on the Switch. It was tested with update 3.0.3 and the Happy Home Paradise add-on in place. The Packed app is about 10.5 GB.
How it runs
On the Mac, a new game plays through Tom Nook's counter, including name entry on the game's own keyboard, choosing a birthday, look, hemisphere and island, then the in-flight movie with sound and the arrival on the island, with the player under control at the dock. Memory use there was about 1.9 GB.
The in-flight movie used to play as a near-black screen with a loading icon, showing a new picture only every few seconds. nxnative now gives the game's video player more room to buffer ahead, and the movie plays smoothly.
Controls
The Packed app starts in the 3D touch layout, with the camera on an undrawn right stick: touch the right third of the screen away from the buttons.
Good to know
- The project developers have not yet reached the first save at the end of the first day on the Mac.
- The island map was reported to show corrupted graphics. nxnative has since gained a general fix for this kind of problem, but it has not yet been checked on the island map.
- At about 10.5 GB the Packed app may be too big for some sideloading setups. nxnative's packing script can keep the game files out of the app with
--romfs separate; see the install guide.
Known issues
- The animated ocean background behind the name-entry keyboard is missing, because its geometry shaders do not translate. Name entry itself works.
Packing command
Run this in your nxnative folder on the Build Mac. Replace the game folder and the keys path with your own. Add --platform mac-app to get a Mac app instead of an iPhone and iPad app.
python3 scripts/build_ipa_from_nsp.py ~/Games/animal-crossing-new-horizons -k ~/keys/prod.keysFAQ
Does Animal Crossing: New Horizons work with nxnative?
Yes. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is tested with nxnative on update 3.0.3.
Which iPhone, iPad or Mac do I need to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
An iPhone 15 Pro or newer (A17 Pro chip or later) or an iPad with an M1 chip or later, on iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, or a Mac with Apple silicon. iPads with the A17 Pro chip (iPad mini) have the iPhone 15 Pro's chip but are untested by nxnative. Packing needs a Mac with macOS 26.6 or later and Xcode 27.1.
Is Animal Crossing: New Horizons included?
No. Neither this site nor nxnative includes any game. You Pack Animal Crossing: New Horizons from your own copy of the game, with keys dumped from your own Switch.
Does online play work in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
Online play in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is not confirmed to work, so do not count on it.
