Exact Release Time & Date For March Sanrio Update In Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Version 1.9)

3 years ago

The upcoming March Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons introducing new Sanrio content and more is almost here! Learn exactly when this free update will arrive for download on your Nintendo Switch.

The March Sanrio Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons including Sanrio villagers and items, Custom Design improvements, new Bunny Day items, new seasonal holiday items, and more is scheduled for release on Thursday, March 18th according to Nintendo!

However, the company didn’t specify an exact release time in the official English tweet, which always leads fans to wonder exactly when they’ll be able to download and enjoy these new features in New Horizons. Thanks to some additional information in Japanese as usual, we have concrete details on the exact release time!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons March Sanrio Update Release Time

According to a Japanese page from Nintendo, the Version 1.9.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons containing new Sanrio items and more will be released at exactly 10AM Japan Standard Time on Thursday, March 18th.

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 Wednesday, March 17th! That’s notable because it means the update will actually be arriving quite a bit earlier in some parts of the world than Nintendo advertised in English.

UPDATE: The March Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has now been released — check out the full patch notes here and complete item datamine here.

It’s worth noting that in some western time zones, the March Update will release an hour later than other recent updates, due to Daylight Savings Time coming into effect. So make sure you don’t get caught off-guard by that!

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

Wed, March 17th at 6PM Pacific Time (PDT)
Wed, March 17th at 7PM Mountain Time (MDT)
Wed, March 17th at 8PM Central Time (CDT)
Wed, March 17th at 9PM Eastern Time (EDT)
Thu, March 18th at 1AM GMT
Thu, March 18th at 12PM Australian Eastern Time (AEDT)

Technically speaking, Nintendo hasn’t officially announced these release times for outside of Japan, but every previous major update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has followed the exact same pattern with the update delivered worldwide simultaneously.

Therefore based on both the Japanese article and past updates, we can say with certainty that you’ll be able to download the March Sanrio Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons at 6PM Pacific Time or 9PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 17th!

So if you’re excited to get your hands on the March Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons as soon as possible, be ready and waiting at your Nintendo Switch for a release at the times listed above. Keep in mind you will likely have to manually trigger the update, which we’ll detail in the section below.

How To Download March Sanrio 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 March Sanrio Update (Version 1.9.o) if it’s been released.

Sometimes it can take an extra few minutes for Nintendo to get the update fully pushed out though, so don’t panic if it doesn’t work immediately on the hour!

How To Access New March Update Content

Unlike other recent major updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons where new content was almost entirely time-locked, the March Update will have more to enjoy right away — at least for some players.

Notably, the new Sanrio villagers and items can be unlocked immediately if you have the Sanrio Amiibo Cards already from past releases. Unfortunately, the new re-print won’t release until March 26th though.

Even if you don’t have access to Sanrio Amiibo Cards right away, we’re expecting that it should be possible to get the items by trading with other players online.

The new improvements and upgrades to Custom Designs in this update should be immediately accessible, as well as a new 1st Anniversary Cake in the mail.

Players will have to wait until March 28th to experience the new Bunny Day items added in the update though as Nintendo has confirmed 2021’s event will be time-locked.

What’s Next After The March Update?

So what’s coming next to Animal Crossing: New Horizons after the March Update with Sanrio? At this time, there isn’t any remaining announced content for the game that hasn’t already been released.

That means we’re pretty much left in the dark as to future updates after March, but it’s unlikely we’ll see one arrive until at least after April 15th since that’s when the last seasonal item from the March Update begins.

Some fans have been speculating about a possible huge update to celebrate the Animal Crossing Series 20th Anniversary in April, but to be honest, this feels like grasping at straws in our opinion after the original Anniversary Update dream didn’t pan out.

Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including our extensive Guides section here. Our most popular pages include Super Mario Items, Mario Warp Pipes, Spring Season, Shamrock Items, Sanrio Card Pre-Orders, Young Spring Bamboo Recipes, Redd Art, and Sea Creatures.