head to head
Neither is harder. They score identically on all four axes, so the difference between them is in kind, not degree.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A cozy island life-sim about building a community at your pace.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person ghost mystery testing investigation and puzzle mapping over reflexes.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Echo Night leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Trivial inputs.
Echo Night
First-person walking with rare chase escapes
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
NPCs are scripted.
Echo Night
Ghosts trigger on fixed conditions, never adapting
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Daily visitors and fossils randomize.
Echo Night
Spirits' requirements are hidden information to uncover
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Turnips, layout, and time-routing reward planning.
Echo Night
Mapping each ghost's appeasement puzzle solves the ship
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.