Animal Crossing: New Horizons - The most popular villagers

Acnh Best Villagers
Acnh Best Villagers (Image credit: iMore)

There are over 390 different villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and each one of them features unique qualities. Specifically, each villager in the game comes with their own appearance, clothes, decoration preferences, personality, voices, and more. Over time, Animal Crossing fans have come to prefer some of these villagers over the others based on several of these variables. These villagers have thus become very popular in the community, and as a result, Animal Crossing fans are putting in a lot of effort to get these villagers on their islands. Here are Animal Crossing's most popular villagers right now.

By the way, if you're trying to add these villagers to your island, you should check to see if they have an Animal Crossing amiibo card. By scanning these cards, you can invite specific villagers to live on your island instead of relying on chance.

Raymond

Acnh Raymond

Raymond (Image credit: Nintendo)

If the villagers of Animal Crossing were royalty, then Raymond would be the king. Raymond is, by far, the most popular villager in all of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. His heterochromia is cool — it's what causes his eyes to have individually unique colors — and he also sports a business-themed outfit that stands out significantly compared to other villager wardrobes. The cherry on top is his Smug personality type, which is the rarest of all of the personalities. Smug villagers tend to be sweet and caring most of the time, so this, coupled with the personality's rarity, makes Raymond even more desirable.

If you have Raymond on your island and you notice he plans to move out, you'll also have a golden opportunity to make some serious bank. Tons of players are willing to pay millions upon millions of Bells or hundreds of Nook Miles Tickets so that they can come to your island and convince Raymond to move to their own. "Raymond is in boxes" is a meme for this reason.

Marshal

Marshal

Marshal (Image credit: Nintendo)

Marshal is similar to Raymond in that he features the Smug personality, a more neutral color scheme, and a unique-looking face (his side-eyes and wavy mouth stand out noticeably). He's not as popular as Raymond is, but many consider him to be the cutest of all of the Animal Crossing villagers.

As with Raymond, you can make a ton of money by "trading" him with other players. He doesn't sell for quite as much, but Marshal still goes for a pretty penny nevertheless. Though, let's be real: how could you say goodbye to a cute face like this?

Audie

Audie

Audie (Image credit: Nintendo)

Audie is an interesting case because she's mostly as popular as she is for a unique reason. She's named after Audrey, an 87-year old grandmother who racked up over 3,500 hours on an Animal Crossing: New Leaf save. Audrey's in-game mayor's name was Audie, hence the name of Audie, the villager.

Aside from this, Audie is also popular for a couple of other reasons. Firstly, she has a cool appearance, as her orange and yellow color scheme makes her look like fire, and it contrasts nicely with her blue sunflower shirt. She also has awesome house decorations; the inside of her home looks like a tiki bar you'd find at a tropical resort. Finally, she's very positive and always has something friendly to say, making her very easy to get along with.

Ankha

Ankha

Ankha (Image credit: Nintendo)

Ankha is one of the coolest "themed villagers" in the entire game, as everything about both her and her house screams Egyptian influence. Her blue and gold color scheme pays homage to the artistic styles of Ancient Egyptian society, and she wears a mummy wrap around her torso. She even dons a crown that's heavily inspired by an Ancient Egyptian Nemes headdress, too!

The interior of Ankha's house continues to follow the Egyptian trend, as the walls and floor are covered in hieroglyphics, and the room is filled with pieces of furniture made out of solid gold (including a toilet!). Wrapping everything together is a large piece of Great Pyramid furniture in the middle of the room.

As with the other villagers listed so far, she's in very high demand on the Animal Crossing market.

Coco

Coco

Coco (Image credit: Nintendo)

Coco is one of the most...unique villagers in the Animal Crossing roster, and it should be pretty easy to see why once you have a look at her. Many (including myself) find her gyroid-inspired facial features and clay-like skin to be incredibly creepy and off-putting. However, a ton of folks on the other side of the spectrum think her design is fascinating and appreciate the value of a villager who has a one-of-a-kind look. Recently, Coco's popularity has spiked dramatically, which means that the latter camp seems to have grown to be the larger one.

Aside from her appearance, Coco also happens to have a Normal personality, which means that she's friendly and approachable nearly all of the time. This makes her even more desirable for people who are already interested in her for her bizarre appearance, and it may offset the influence her look has on you if you wanted to avoid her. Maybe.

Fauna

Fauna

Fauna (Image credit: Nintendo)

Fauna has always been a fan-favorite in every Animal Crossing title she's been in, and that hasn't changed at all with New Horizons. Her simple, yet pleasant color scheme and outfit proves that villagers don't need to be vibrant or extravagant to look good. She's not completely neutral like Raymond and Marshal are, but she's far from flashy.

Outside of her look, Fauna's popularity is also bolstered by her personality. Fauna is arguably the nicest villager in all of Animal Crossing, and you'll never see her being mean to anyone. She frequently asks how you're doing, and she's always happy to chat with you, which makes her super pleasant to have around.

Finally, Fauna even comes with utility — she tends to water flowers a lot during the day. If you want your flowers to stay healthy but can't be bothered to water them yourself, having Fauna live on your island is kind of like having a groundskeeper.

Merengue

Merengue

Merengue (Image credit: Nintendo)

If Fauna is all about simple and sweet, then Merengue is all about sweet and sweeter. Literally.

Guys. She's a strawberry shortcake on legs. Her horn is a strawberry. Her hair is frosting.

Aside from her amazing design, she's also popular because, similar to Fauna, she's very kind and caring towards the player and other villagers. On top of this, she also has an incredibly cool house that's decorated to look like a bakery.

Overall, Merengue sports an awesome appearance, acts like a sweetheart, and has a stellar living space. What more could you want out of a villager?

Bob

Bob

Bob (Image credit: Nintendo)

Bob is seen by many as a representation of Animal Crossing's history. In addition to being in every single Animal Crossing game to date, he's also widely believed to be the first villager that was created for the Animal Crossing series. In all of the titles where villagers have an ID number, Bob's comes before anyone else's. On top of that, he has a very simple name, and his birthday is on January 1st.

Aside from his historical significance, Bob also has cool purple fur and a red shirt with white flowers on it. This makes for a stylish and appealing look.

Finally, Bob has the Lazy personality, which means that he's mellow and relaxed compared to villagers of different personality types. Thanks to their laid-back nature, Lazy villagers are pleasant to have around, and Bob is no exception.

Stitches

Stitches

Stitches (Image credit: Nintendo)

Stitches is a hot mess of a villager who's designed to look like a worn-down child's teddy bear. The sheer randomness of his color scheme and his X-shaped eyes are weird, but I think this bizarre appearance is what draws people to him, similar to Coco and her soulless husk of a body.

In addition to his personal look, he also has a house that's designed to look like a children's play area/bedroom. Some may find this to be creepy, but again, I think the uniqueness of it is what makes Stitches' home a fan-favorite.

Lastly, like Bob, Stitches is a Lazy villager, so you can expect him to be friendly and relaxed.

Diana

Diana

Diana (Image credit: Nintendo)

Diana is popular for a couple of reasons. Firstly, she's thought by most to be named after the Roman deity Diana, who is the goddess of wild animals and hunting. Considering that Diana's symbol is often a deer, this theory holds weight — especially when you factor in that Diana, the villager has a Roman bathroom-style decor in her house.

Secondly, her white fur, swirl of purple hair, rosy cheeks, and multi-colored ears make her aesthetically desirable. Her eyes are pretty, too, which is a bonus.

Finally, while it's true that Diana has the Snooty personality type, she tends to be less rude and uptight than other Snooty villagers can be. Instead, Diana comes off as mature and refined. She considers fashion and status important, but you'll never find her rudely gossiping to others.

What do you think of our list of popular villagers? Are there any you feel we missed? Let us know. Also, don't miss our list of our favorite villagers, and make sure to check out our best Animal Crossing T-Shirts roundup if you want to get a shirt with your favorite villager on it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for $60 on Nintendo Switch.

Brendan Lowry