If you’re wanting to delete your save in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’re in luck because it is in-fact possible. The only downside is that you have to manually do it from the Nintendo Switch System Settings instead of within the actual game.
There’s a few reasons you might want to delete save files. It’s necessary if your save is corrupted or you don’t like how your island is turning out. From what we can see, there are no multiple save slots for the game either, so you’re limited to a single save file. There’s no way to start a fresh game without deleting that file.
This guide was created during the first week of Animal Crossing: New Horizons release on the Nintendo Switch. Depending on when you’re reading this guide, some thing may be different due to future updates. However we’ll always try to come back and update these guides! For more of our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guides & Best-of lists, make sure to check out our dedicated area here!
How to Delete Saves
Before we get started, you should know that deleting Save Data is irreversible, once it’s gone, there’s no getting it back. If you’d like to continue, the first thing you’re going to want to do is head to the Nintendo Switch Home Screen. From the bottom of the screen, select ‘System Settings’, the button shown below.
On the left hand side inside of System Settings, navigate to ‘Data Management’. Then on the right, look for the ‘Delete Save Data’ button and select it.
In the next window, you should see a list of games that you own on the Nintendo Switch which have Save Data already stored on your Switch. Select Animal Crossing: New Horizons, then press ‘Delete all Save Data for this Software’.
Once you’ve confirmed it, you can load up Animal Crossing: New Horizons again. When you press play, you’ll be sent back to the start where you choose a hemisphere, create your character etc. You can also go through this process with any other Nintendo Switch games that you own.
