With Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ 3.0 patch landing next week, it only makes sense that Nintendo would promote the update with a Tetris 99 theme. Running this weekend from January 8th, 2026, until January 12th, 2026, the 51st Maximus Cup will be sporting another Animal Crossing: New Horizons theme for players to collect. As with past events, you simply need to earn 100 points to acquire the theme for future use.
The #Tetris99 51st MAXIMUS CUP event will run from Jan 8 at 11pm PT to Jan 12 at 10:59pm PT! Once you’ve accumulated a total of 100 event points, a new theme will unlock, featuring art, music, and Tetrimino designs inspired by #AnimalCrossingNewHorizons! @Tetris_Official pic.twitter.com/fIrNOALv03
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 6, 2026
As to be expected, this theme is focused on Cap’n’s family and sports a design which prominently highlights his visage. With the 3.0 update bringing a new island resort run by Cap’n to tinker with, that makes sense. The tetriminos also get new designs inspired by Animal Crossing objects. I’m particularly fond of the J pieces being fossils, for instance.
It’s never difficult to unlock new themes in Tetris 99 as each game will give you at least 1 event point. Placing higher in the rankings will give you more and more, with a win outright unlocking the theme upon match completion. This Maximus Cup actually runs one more day than usual, so you’ll have a bit longer to unlock the theme.
Check out more Animal Crossing content
Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 – How to Unlock Zelda and Splatoon Villagers with amiibo
188 Animal Crossing: New Leaf tracks added to Nintendo Music
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
