How to delete your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for a fresh start on Switch 2

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been out for nearly six years, and in that time, players have crafted islands with extensive designs, themes, and landscapes. However, even the most dedicated island enthusiasts might long for a fresh start, and that is when it is time to reset your New Horizons island.

Restarting your New Horizons island isn’t a small choice. Once you have reset, there is no way to get that island back. However, there are many perks to a fresh start, from re-experiencing the game’s many features to fearlessly creating new island designs. 

The Escapist recaps

• Restarting is a permanent choice in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can’t have multiple saves on a console.
• Restarting requires steps outside of the game to properly erase old save data.
• Restarting can be done by accident if you don’t use the island transfer tool correctly.
• The choice to restart New Horizons can be made for a variety of reasons, like wanting to have a new island theme. 
• A fresh start is a great way to remember what made the game so special, especially for those who have completed everything there is to do.

How to delete your island in Animal Crossing

Unlike other games, deleting your save in Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t as simple as scrolling through the save files in your game. Instead, you will need to delete your game by navigating to the save data on your Nintendo Switch system. 

It is important to note that once this has been done, there is no going back. The data will be permanently gone from both your switch and the cloud, making it impossible to ever get it back.

Because of this, be sure to think carefully about deleting your island before you follow the steps below.

To delete your save data and reset your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you will need to:

• Close the game
• Navigate to the Nintendo Switch Home Screen
• Click on the System Settings for your Switch
• Navigate to the Data Management option on the left-hand side of the menu
• Navigate to the bottom of the Data Management menu and select “Delete Save Data”
• Locate your New Horizons save data and select the delete button

Alternatively, you can delete your save during a console swap by choosing not to transfer your island save data to the new console via the island transfer tool.

New Horizons is one of the few games on the Switch that does not save to the cloud. This local data must be manually transferred, or it will reset when you begin using your new Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 console.

Once you have deleted this data, open Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and you should see the beginning intro start playing. If this doesn’t happen, it means the data was not completely erased from the system.

Why would you delete your Animal Crossing island?

Choosing to delete your save in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no small undertaking. Losing all progress, resetting all buildings and island designs, and starting from scratch on DIYs, Museum submissions, and collectibles can be daunting after the hours required to complete them all. However, there are a few reasons that could compel a fan to start from scratch.

The first is boredom. After completing everything, especially over years of gameplay, there really isn’t much left to do on a New Horizons island. 

With new content releases few and far between, a save becomes a time capsule or an exhibit of the player’s work, but without much to add. Starting over offers the chance to re-experience what made the game so attention-grabbing at launch.

Players may also choose to restart so they are no longer held back by previous island designs. Those who have spent hundreds of hours building the perfect island may become resistant to knocking things down and rebuilding.

The big benefit to starting fresh in New Horizons is that all previous works are no longer in the way. You are free to make new choices, try new designs, and all without the baggage of your previous save.

The last reason someone may choose to reset is due to personal life changes. New Horizons is a game that often reflects where people are at the moment they are playing.

For many longtime fans, islands were built during 2020. This can be a hard frame of time to revisit. Starting fresh can be an opportunity to build in a better headspace and clean out old memories that might be best left in the camera roll of your Switch gallery.

No matter the reasons, however, restarting your game in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a great way to try new ideas and start on a whole new island adventure.

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