In all honesty, I still can’t believe 2020 ever happened. I was freshly nineteen, had just started my freshman year of college, and about to embark on the most exciting journey of my life by living and studying aboard. And then, COVID-19 hit hard. I went back home, moved back in with my folks and spent all my time studying, reading and writing while quarantine prevented all of us from going anywhere. To say Animal Crossing: New Horizons came at the right time (in mid-March 2020) is a generous understatement. For those unfamiliar with the game, it’s a life-simulation game where you, as a little human, live among animals on an island. Previous instalments of the game were a huge part of my childhood, so when I heard a new game was out, at my ripe age of nineteen, I had to get it. And this is where Joe Bidencomes into play.
Whenever I think of Joe Biden, I think of the SODA meme, the time he fell off a bike or his failed attempt to describe America in one word. There is an infinite amount of things I can actually imagine happening, but the Biden x Animal Crossing crossover was something I never could’ve imagined. I, unfortunately, didn’t get to experience Biden HQ, as the island was called, firsthand, but god bless YouTube and all those lucky bastards who got to roam around Biden’s island while it was still available. The case of Biden HQ is absolutely fascinating to me because it redefined the ways in which a campaign can be run, especially at a time when a new-age plague was claiming lives all across the globe.
Okay, before we get to Joe, we first need to understand this obsession with Animal Crossing. The first game, simply titled Animal Crossing, was released in 2001 on the Nintendo 64/GameCube and became an instant hit. The series creator Katsuya Eguchi came up with the idea following his experience of moving away and missing his family and friends back home.[1] And this is precisely why so many people, myself included, love the series: it feels like a home away from home, where you get to decorate your house, hang out with your animal friends, harvest vegetables and buy turnips to participate in the game’s Stalk (aka stock) market. Following the game’s success, four more mainline games were released between 2005 and 2020.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released on March 20, 2020, on Nintendo Switch. In just twelve days, the game sold close to twelve million copies, setting a record for most digital units sold in a single month by any console game.[2] By mid-2020, the game sold twenty-two million copies, and had already been considered as one of the greatest games of all time. Following Biden’s nomination as the Democratic candidate on August 18, 2020, his campaign team already saw the value of Animal Crossing as a campaign tool.
The 2020 election was unlike anything we’d seen up until that point. Although the summer months brought lower numbers of those infected, the arrival of fall significantly increased the number of COVID-19 cases. Campaigning had to be adjusted to these unforeseen circumstances, so, especially for Biden, social mediabecame the centre of the candidate’s focus.[3] Biden’s campaign team was very active on TikTok, encouraging young voters to vote for him and creating daily pro-Biden content. Joe’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and many others have appealed to many young voters, but Biden’s campaign team knew that entering the most popular game of 2020 would likely result in a game-over for Trump.
And so, that’s exactly what they did. On October 16, 2020, Biden HQwas launched. The team had already created campaign signs and yard banners a month before they made the island available to everyone, but the opening of Biden HQ was the real deal. The island consisted of a field office, filled with campaign materials that encouraged visitors to vote for Biden, an ice cream truck to honour Joe’s love of ice cream, polling stations and Joe’s patriotic garden, covered in roses in the colours of the American flag. Biden’s campaign team went a step further and created in-game merchandise that visitors could download, like the Biden-Harris shirts, Joe’s aviator sunglasses and LGTBQ+ flags.[4]
The real stars were, naturally, Joe and Kamala that could be seen roaming the island. Whenever you interacted with Joe, he’d respond with “No malarkey!”, one of his campaign slogans. Kamala didn’t have any lines, but she was seen smiling and trailing behind Joe. When asked what their goals were, Christian Tom, director of digital partnerships for the Biden campaign, said to CNN, “Exploring is at the heart of Animal Crossing, and we know that Biden HQ will encourage players to explore all the ways they can make a plan to vote at IWillVote.com and help elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”[5]
Spoiler alert, but Biden and Harris actually won the election. Joe and Kamala received eighty-one million votes, the most in U.S. history EVER. Biden HQ was, no doubt, part of the reason why people gave their vote to Biden. Whether because it was bonkers and, therefore, iconic or because people actually appreciated the campaign’s efforts to reach voters far and wide, the success of Biden’s in-game campaign goes down in history as one of the most creative and groundbreaking ways to conduct a presidential campaign that goes beyond in-person rallies and social media posts.
Over 150,000 people visited Biden HQ, with many claiming the island was “definitely made by a pro gamer” and assuring their vote was secured.[6] The success of the island was further reinforced when it received the 2020 Shorty Award in the category of “Government and Politics, Emerging Platform”. Thanks to this accomplishment, Biden made history not only for becoming President, but also for leading the first presidential campaign in history to successfully engage voters in a video game.
Although Biden HQ is no longer accessible, it remains one of the game’s most iconic celebrity islands. COVID-19 was a total disaster, but it also allowed for Joe Biden to become a video-game character and, in turn, America’s 46th President. Think what you will of Joe and his presidency, but his campaign team was on a whole another level. Coming up with something as refreshing and innovative as an island in a video game to boost visibility, increase engagement with young voters and as a response to physical limitations due to COVID-19 was nothing short of genius. We have yet to see anything as impressive again!
