Audie

About

Audie is a fictional character from the Animal Crossing series of games published by Nintendo. She first appeared in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and has since become a frequent subject of Animal Crossing fans for her unique characteristics and backstory. Audie is technically a wolf, but her orange coloring and initial phrase, "foxtrot," leads some to believe she’s supposed to be a fox. Her name originates from Audrey Buchanan, known amongst the community as the "Animal Crossing grandma."

Origin

Audie was first introduced to the franchise on March 20th, 2020, in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (also appearing in Pocket Camp) as the only peppy demeanor wolf to date. Her name stems from the grandmother of game designer Paul Hubans, whose name is Audrey Buchanan. The 88-year-old was given a special character after racking up over 3,500 hours in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which gave her the nickname “Animal Crossing grandma.” In the game, Audie (seen below) has a friendly, cheerful attitude and will often dish out gifts and compliments. While easy to befriend, some villagers find her demeanor, short attention span and overreactions rude or offputting, especially clashing with snooty, lazy or cranky types.

Spread

Audie saw a surge in renown after the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in March 2020, appearing in articles, videos, memes and fan art on a number of sites and social media platforms. Eurogamer^[1] featured Audie in an article ahead of the game’s release on March 17th, 2020, noting that Animal Crossing grandma would be getting her own special villager. TheGamer^[2] also published an article covering the character on March 27th, 2020, explaining Audie’s popularity among fans.

On April 2nd, 2020, YouTuber^[3] phubans uploaded a video of Audrey Buchanan opening her new Switch and a copy of the game under the title, “88-Year-Old Grandma Unboxing Animal Crossing New Horizons Switch,” which received nearly 3.5 million views, 273,000 likes, and 23,000 comments (shown below).

Redditor^[4] NeverDeadlyy posted a screenshot of their character waking up to find Audie moved into their village (seen below) on March 21st, 2020, receiving over 5,300 upvotes and 55 comments. On May 15th, 2020, Redditor^[5] historyofdance uploaded a video featuring Audie under the title, “Audie would rather listen to a vacuum cleaner than my pan flute skills,” receiving more than 8,500 upvotes and 155 comments.

On May 12th, 2020, Twitter^[6] user Kathryninks tweeted their fan art of Audie (shown below), which was liked over 13,100 times and retweeted 3,300 times.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References