We’ve all got our favorite characters from the Animal Crossing series, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no different!
With just under 400 characters, being picky with who does and doesn’t live on your island can be tricky.
But how many villagers can you house on your island?
Can I have more than 10 villagers in Animal Crossing?
In ACNH, you can have a maximum of ten villagers and up to eight human players.
The number of human players won’t impact the number of animals you can house on your island, so your whole family can get involved without you compromising on your favorite characters!
Why are you only allowed 10 villagers in ACNH?
Firstly, there are nearly 400 characters in the game, but only 8 personality types. That means all those characters are either:
Male villager personalities
- Smug
- Jock
- Cranky
- Lazy
Female villager personalities
- Snooty
- Normal
- Peppy
- Sisterly
If you had more than ten villagers on your island, you’d most likely be surrounded by villagers of the same personality type.
Having ten islanders means more variety and promotes players to be super selective about who they want on their island.
This can lead to more fun when a plot becomes available, as you can go looking for your most-loved character in faraway islands using Nook Miles Tickets.
The second theory is that the ACNH islands are pretty small. There isn’t tons of room to house a whole load of villagers and build out major areas on your island.
Ten seems a reasonable amount for villager housing without overcrowding the space, so you can still get creative with your layout and theme!
Do you need 8 villagers for 3 stars?
To increase your island rating you need to add to your island population. There’s no getting around it!
If you hold out on getting more villagers, you’ll only be lengthening the time you have to wait to get your coveted three-star rating.
You don’t need ten villagers to get a better island rating, but you do need to increase your island count.
Whether you ever fill the maximum ten plots is up to you, your preferences for characters, and what you plan to do with the available space on your island.
How do you get all 10 villagers?
In order to fill plots on your island, you can get villagers through:
Mystery Island Tours
Head over to your Nook Stop terminal in Resident Services and buy a Nook Miles Ticket for 2,000 Nook Miles.
Use your Nook Miles Ticket at the airport to travel to a Mystery Island.
If you’ve got a spare plot to fill, then you’ll have the opportunity to find your next resident on these Mystery Island Tours.
When you visit the Mystery Island, you’ll see a character wandering round. You’ll have the option to either engage with and invite them to live on your island, or to pass by and not interact with them.
Find a friend with islanders in boxes
If one of your friends, or someone you know online, has a character you love in boxes, you can travel to their island using a dodo code and invite that character to move to yours!
Check out ACNH-related forums as players regularly advertise when they have characters in boxes who are ready to be swooped away to another island!
Campsite visitors
When you have a spare plot on your island, campsite visitors will have the option to move in permanently once you engage with them.
They’ll often ask to play a game with you, and if you win they’ll talk about staying.
If you lose the game, all is not lost! Keep talking to them and in time they’ll offer to move in and become a resident of your island.
Amiibos
With Amiibos, you can obtain a specific character to become a resident on your island. Do this by visiting your Nook Stop in Resident Services and selecting the “Invite Amiibo Camper” option.
Once settled in your campsite, you’ll need to run an errand for them by creating a piece of furniture (this is also a great way to increase your learned DIYs).
When you’ve repeated this process of inviting them to your campsite and creating furniture three times, you can invite the animal to become a permanent fixture on your island!
Remember, if you haven’t got a spare plot, you’ll need to kick out one of your current islanders. So think carefully before proceeding with your Amiibo character!
Buy a plot from Tom Nook
Our favorite money-hungry raccoon is always coming up with new ways to charge us bells, and island property is just another one of Tom Nook’s money-making schemes.
To house the maximum ten villagers, you’ll need to have the available plots on your island.
If you don’t have any more allocated plots and you have land to spare, speak to Tom Nook at his Resident Services counter.
You can purchase a plot for 10,000 bells from Tom. Yes, that’s right, YOU have to pay Tom Nook for the pleasure of populating the island!
Can you find villagers on an island if you already have 10 villagers?
No, you won’t see any villagers appearing on Mystery Islands if all your plots are filled.
The only time you’ll see villagers on your Mystery Island Tours is when you have an open, vacant plot.
What if I don’t like one of my villagers?
You can’t force an islander to move. Many players have tried to be mean to their villagers in hopes that they’ll move, but they’ve had no such luck.
Not playing for a while won’t help your least favorite villagers move out either, and villagers need to ask you before they can leave.
Your best bet is to wait until they’ve got a thinking bubble over their head, which can indicate they’re considering moving.
The maximum amount of villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
So there we have it! You’ve got a maximum of 10 plots to fill with animals, and you can find them either on Mystery Island Tours, on your campsite, or in various other ways.
As there are only ten spaces available, make sure you’re picky with who gets to live on your dream island – you don’t want to have to wait an age before they finally decide they want to move out!