Expected Release Time & Date For Version 3.0 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update

4 weeks ago Justin 5 Comments

The greatly anticipated Version 3.0 Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is just days away! Learn when we expect this free update will arrive for download on your Nintendo Switch.

As a reminder, the Version 3.0 Update featuring the brand new Resort Hotel run by Kapp’n, Slumber Islands, new collaboration items, new amiibo villagers, and more is scheduled for release on Thursday, January 15th, 2026 according to Nintendo! The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition releases on the same day as well.

However, the company didn’t specify an exact release time in the official announcement. Naturally, the most dedicated fans eagerly await exactly when they’ll be able to download and enjoy these new features in New Horizons.

UPDATE: What are you waiting for?! The Version 3.0 Update is available RIGHT NOW in alignment with the ‘early’ release estimate we covered below — details here!

We’ll be straight here and not waste your time — there is no official release time available at this time. But after closely monitoring and reporting the release of every Animal Crossing update for the past 6 years, we’ll give you our best educated guesses on when it’s most likely you can download Version 3.0!

Previous Major Animal Crossing Update Release Patterns

With almost every past major update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the update has been consistently released for download at approximately 10AM Japan Standard Time on the announced release date.

In this case for Version 3.0, that’d be 10AM JST on Thursday, January 15th. Notably, this would actually place a release in North American time zones during the early evening of January 14th — a day earlier than advertised.

Typically, we’d consider this to be the earliest time that the update could be expected to be available, but things might be different this year…

One Extra Wrinkle For The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

There’s an extra twist that’s completely unique to Version 3.0 and could change up the release time significantly. Unlike previous updates, a new physical box is also releasing on January 15th known as Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, plus a digital Upgrade Pack on the Nintendo eShop.

It’s possible that this edition of the game will already have Version 3.0 included on the physical game cart. And on the digital side, the Upgrade Pack has been marketed by Nintendo alongside the update as one big release. This wasn’t a factor for all previous major updates of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in years past.

If the Upgrade Pack is released and available for download in some regions before the Version 3.0 Update is launched, then it could create a confusing situation for some fans where they can use new Switch 2 features like the Megaphone and Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, but major update additions like Kapp’n’s Resort Hotel are missing.

Even though these are completely different parts of the game on a technical basis, we think it’s fair to say many players will understandably think of everything as a single release and expect Version 3.0 features to be available at the same time if they pre-ordered the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

If Nintendo wishes this to be the case, then it’s possible that the Version 3.0 Update release time may be aligned and become available as soon as the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition can be purchased somewhere in the world.

The exact time for digital game launches varies by each region’s Nintendo eShop, but generally speaking the earliest availability tends to be through the New Zealand Nintendo eShop where games typically release at Midnight local time, or what is currently NZDT.

Our Best Guess For Version 3.0’s Release Time

Taking all of the above into account, if the Version 3.0 Update release time is adjusted to align with the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Upgrade Pack’s initial release in New Zealand, then it may arrive extra early around these times:

• Wed, January 14th at 3AM Pacific Time (PST)
• Wed, January 14th at 4AM Mountain Time (MST)
• Wed, January 14th at 5AM Central Time (CST)
• Wed, January 14th at 6AM Eastern Time (EST)
• Wed, January 14th at 11AM Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
• Wed, January 14th at 10PM Australian Eastern Time (AEDT)

On the other hand, if this does not happen and Nintendo releases the Version 3.0 Update according to their most reliable past pattern, expect the update to release around these times:

• Wed, January 14th at 5PM Pacific Time (PST)
• Wed, January 14th at 6PM Mountain Time (MST)
• Wed, January 14th at 7PM Central Time (CST)
• Wed, January 14th at 8PM Eastern Time (EST)
• Thu, January 15th at 1AM Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
• Thu, January 15th at 12PM Australian Eastern Time (AEDT)

If the later scenario plays out, then that does mean some players in some parts of the world may have early access to Version 3.0 through the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition — assuming it’s included in the package.

We must caution that these times are all based on estimated release times, assuming either the release will align with the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition or past major free update patterns. There is no official confirmed time from Nintendo. Hopefully, this leaves you with more information on what you might expect than you came into this article with, but we can’t say with certainty yet.

That One Exception To The Update Pattern

It’s a minor detail, but we mentioned earlier that the update pattern estimate is based on almost every major update release. There was one exception in November 2021, which actually happens to be the most recent update.

In that instance with Version 2.0, the update was unexpectedly released one entire calendar day ahead of the typical pattern. That meant a release on the evening of November 3rd in North America, when the update was advertised to release on November 5th!

Curiously, Nintendo didn’t officially acknowledge the update’s release on social media or their website until the standard release time hit another 24 hours later. This leads us to believe there’s a small possibility an error was involved, but we’ll never know for sure.

What does this mean for Version 3.0? Could it happen again? That’s impossible to say of course, but we thought it was worth mentioning for the sake of completeness. It would certainly solve the issue of the Upgrade Pack releasing earlier.

If the Version 3.0 Update were to follow the pattern of Version 2.0 precisely in this way, we would expect a release around these times, but we consider this an unlikely possibility:

• Wed, January 13th at 5PM Pacific Time (PST)
• Wed, January 13th at 6PM Mountain Time (MST)
• Wed, January 13th at 7PM Central Time (CST)
• Wed, January 13th at 8PM Eastern Time (EST)
• Thu, January 14th at 1AM Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
• Thu, January 14th at 12PM Australian Eastern Time (AEDT)

How To Download Version 3.0 Update For Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Your copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons should update automatically for you when it is released, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you can 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’.

Your Nintendo Switch system will check for all available Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates when you do so, and then download the Version 3.0 Update if it’s been released yet.

Note that it can sometimes take an extra five minutes or so for Nintendo to get the update fully pushed out though, so don’t panic if it doesn’t work immediately on the dot!

We’ll update this article as soon as further official information is released by Nintendo regarding a release time or when the update itself is actually available for download.

Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on the upcoming Version 3.0 Update of Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Follow us on X, Facebook, Bluesky, and our mailing list below for updates. Or check out our most popular guides like Redd Art, Bush Types & Colors, Villager Houses, Sea Creatures, and K.K. Slider Songs.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons News Update Version 3.0 Update