How to restart your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island

Restarting your island in Animal Crossing can be a good move if you’re not satisfied with the villagers or want a new island layout. Here’s a guide highlighting the easiest ways to restart your island in the game.

There might be times when you might not be satisfied with the cards you’re dealt with in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Be it the island layout or something as simple as your island’s native fruit leaving resetting your island as the last resort.

Restarting your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is quite easy. But first, make sure it’s a decision that you’ve put a lot of thought into – once it’s gone, there’s no bringing it back!

If you have a friend with the game, you can even trade your belongings to them first so you can get them back in your new town.

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Onto new adventures!

Restarting your island on the first day

This is the easiest way to restart your island if you’re not satisfied with it on the very first day. Here’s how you can do it:

• Press the Home button on your Nintendo Switch while the game is open.
• Use your joycon to highlight Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
• Press X and close the game.
• Open the game again. Since the game didn’t save, you will be able to start from the very begining of the game.

Note: This method will only work on your first day in the game

Restarting your island by clearing save data

To reset your Animal Crossing: New Horizons save file, follow these steps:

• Press the Home button on your Nintendo Switch.
• Go to System Settings at the bottom of the screen highlighted by a gear icon.
• Scroll down to Data Management and click on Delete Save Data.
• Select Animal Cross: New Horizons and click on Delete All Save Data for This Software.
• Once the saved data is deleted, open Animal Crossing: New Horizons to start a new save file.

Note: This method will reset all your saved data in Animal Crossing. Only proceed with this method if you’re absolutely sure you want to restart your island.

That’s all there is to know about restarting your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. You can also check out how to get different types of Axes. You can also take a look at some of the best games like Animal Crossing to play on Switch.