Animal Crossing New Horizons 3.0 Update Countdown: Exact Start Time and Date
A new adventure awaits.
It’s been years since the last big update for Animal Crossing New Horizons, so the addition of a big one packed with loads of new features is an exciting occasion for the cozy game. If you’re eager to start exploring as soon as possible, you’ll need to know exactly when the 2026 update will be available.
It may have been a while since you last visited your island, but there’s no time like the present to return, with lots of fresh content you won’t want to miss out on. To ensure you’re ready to head back to the island as soon as you can, here’s the exact time and date when the 2026 3.0 update for Animal Crossing New Horizons will be released.
When is the Animal Crossing 2026 Update?
The massive 3.0 update for Animal Crossing New Horizons is officially slated to launch on Jan. 15, although depending on where you live, it may actually become available a bit earlier on Jan. 14. An official launch time hasn’t been revealed so far, but past updates have typically gone live at 10am JST, which translates to 7pm CT, so there’s a decent chance this one will, too.
We’ve set our countdown timer to the expected launch time for now, and will update it and provide additional details here if a launch time is confirmed. You can check back here leading up to the update to see how much longer we have to wait before we can dive in.
- PT: 5pm on Jan. 14
- CT: 7pm on Jan. 14
- ET: 8pm on Jan. 14
- BST: 1am on Jan. 15
- CEST: 2am on Jan. 15
- JST: 10am on Jan. 15
- AEST: 11am on Jan. 15
Animal Crossing New Horizons 2026 Update Features
There are loads of new features in the 3.0 update for Animal Crossing New Horizons, including:
- Kapp’n Family Hotel – This is the main new feature in the update. Kapp’n family arrives on the island, adding a grand hotel to the pier. At this hotel, you can decorate guest rooms for villagers to stay in, acquire Hotel Tickets to spend at the new hotel souvenir shop, dress mannequins in the hotel to have villagers wear your desired attire, and craft special island goodies to help promote the hotel. There are a lot of smaller new features tied in with the hotel, making it a robust new gameplay system to explore.
- Expanded storage and storage changes – Your inventory is getting a lot bigger and better. With this update, the new maximum storage cap is 9,000. You can also now store grown trees, flowers, and shrubs.
- Slumber Islands – We can finally customize additional islands thanks to the addition of Luna’s new dream world, which is called Slumber Island. You can create up to three of these islands, and friends can also join you there to create something special together.
- Resetti’s Reset Service – Ever wanted to totally clear away a big patch of land at once? Well, thanks to Resetti’s Reset Service, you finally can. Gone are the days of tediously picking up each item one by one, as this new feature helps you quickly clean up large areas around your island without the hassle.
- Bulk crafting – Instead of crafting the same item over and over on a lengthy loop, you can now select how many of an item you want to make with the arrival of bulk crafting. It’s about dang time.
- New collaborations – A fresh wave of collaborations is arriving in this update, including new Nintendo items, LEGO items, The Legend of Zelda items, and Splatoon items. There are also four new villagers tied to The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon collabs.
