Animal Crossing: New Horizons Summer Update Release Time & Date (Version 1.3 — Swimming & Pascal)

5 years ago Justin 9 Comments

The highly anticipated Summer Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons with brand new features like Swimming and Pascal is finally almost here! Learn everything we know about exactly when the update will be available for download.

When Will The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Summer Update Release For Download?

The Summer Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons including Swimming, Sea Creatures, Pascal, Pirate Gulliver, and the Mermaid Set will be released on Friday, July 3rd according to Nintendo.

However, the company did not specify an exact release time in the official trailer and many fans might be wondering exactly when they’ll be able to start swimming in New Horizons! Thanks to additional information on the Japanese Nintendo website though, we have some details on the exact release time!

According to the official Nintendo website in Japanese, the Version 1.3.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons containing all these exciting new features will be released at exactly 10AM Japan Standard Time on Friday, July 3rd.

For everyone living in other time zones, which almost certainly includes you, that release time converts to 6PM Pacific Time or 9PM Eastern Time on Thursday, July 2nd! Interestingly, this means the update could actually be arriving quite a bit earlier in some parts of the world than Nintendo advertised in the English trailer.

UPDATE: The Summer Update is now available everywhere! You can find the Full Version 1.3.0 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Summer Update Patch Notes: Swimming, Sea Creatures, Pascal right over here.

Here’s a comprehensive list of Animal Crossing: New Horizons Summer Update release times around the world, based on the Japanese release date:

• July 2nd at 6PM Pacific Time (PDT)
• July 2nd at 7PM Mountain Time (MDT)
• July 2nd at 8PM Central Time (CDT)
• July 2nd at 9PM Eastern Time (EDT)
• July 3rd at 2AM British Summer Time (BST)
• July 3rd at 11AM Australian Eastern Time (AEST)

While we technically don’t know for sure whether the update will be released for all regions at the same time, there’s certainly precedent to assume it will be! Specifically, we wrote a very similar article to this one back in April for the Spring Update with Leif and Redd.

Just like with the Summer Update, an update release time was announced for 10AM Japan Standard Time, and the Spring Update arrived as scheduled worldwide to everyone at the same time in relation to 10AM JST.

Therefore based on the Japanese website and past events, we’re almost certain that you’ll be able to download the Summer Update at 6PM Pacific Time or 9PM Eastern Time on Thursday, July 2nd!

So if you’re excited to get your hands on the Summer Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons as soon as possible, be hopeful for an early release starting at 6PM Pacific Time / 9PM Eastern Time and have your Nintendo Switch ready to update. Keep in mind you may have to manually trigger an update, which we’ll detail in the section below.

How To Download Summer Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Your copy of the game should update automatically for you, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you’ll be able to manually trigger any available updates by pressing the + button on the Animal Crossing: New Horizons home screen icon, selecting Software Update, and hitting Via the Internet.

The Nintendo Switch will then check for all available Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates when you do so and download the Summer Update if it’s released on time.

Will There Be Any New Events In The Summer Update?

When the Spring Update released for Animal Crossing: New Horizons back in April, the update started off with a bang right away as the Nature Day event began immediately afterwards. Then we received a slew of follow-up events soon after like May Day on May 1st and International Museum Day on May 18th.

So what about the Summer Update? Will there be any fun new seasonal events to kick off after the update too? Right now, it’s looking like the answer is no. The update’s new content appears to be instead squarely focused on more permanent content like swimming, diving, Pascal, and new furniture like the Mermaid Set.

However, it looks like Nintendo will be getting us back on the seasonal events train by the beginning of August as the company hinted at Summer Update Wave Two arriving with the new August Fireworks Show event in tow! Based on past Animal Crossing games, that first day of that event should roll in on either Sunday, August 2nd or Sunday, August 9th.

We hope you’re just as excited for the Summer Update as we are — it’s going to be amazing to have some more fresh new content for exploring! Check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guides page here for more on the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons News Update