Topic: The Switch 2 Storage Crisis

[Evan_B]

I don’t love that I have to complain about storage, but nobody else seems to be willing to do it.

I recently deleted Mario Kart World off of my Switch 2- you know, that game that Nintendo launched the Switch with, as a digital bundle so as to save on the woes of physical media? To be fair, I haven’t touched it in several months and I think I’ve made it clear that, in adddition to Banaza, I feel it’s one of the more phoned-in Switch 2 titles from the Switch 2’s year one.

Storage woes aren’t helped by most Switch 2 editions of games literally being just a copy of the original game that needs to be in your storage in addition to the Switch cartridge you need to use in order to access it. And despite my love of Capcom and its support of the Switch 2, every one of their games being a Game Key Card has finally forced me, despite my wont for physical media, to find myself needing another storage expansion a year and some change into the hardware’s lifespan.

This problem is twofold, as holy hell are MicroSD Express cards expensive. I guess I should consider “the double swap,” i.e. “swap switch game carts and the MicroSD Express that holds the specific Switch 2 edition on it,” but a part of me really likes to have my whole library accessible to me at any time- something that feels increasingly less-probable as the size of games and storage are increasingly ballooning. Perhaps it is time to say “hey, I haven’t played this game in three months- time to fridge clean” as a rule when it comes to this new machine. It just sucks, seeing as I’ve been able to comfortably storage upgrade with just about every other console I’ve owned up until this point.

Tl;dr does anyone have any recommendations for a decent scale-up for Switch 2 storage? I have uncomfortably maxed out my 256 MicroSD Express and I’m looking for a proper 512. Some sites have sub-$100 512s but they come with baggage: for example, Walmart’s ONN brand has failed on more than a handful of Switch 2s in a span of six days to half a year, and any other sub-$100 microSD Expresses feel more like shady listings than anything.

How are you handling your Switch 2 storage?

[NWR_insanolord]

I splurged for a 1 TB microSD and still find myself having to clean the fridge. What I'd really love is a Switch 2 revision with an OLED screen and multiple SD slots.

[Evan_B]

I’m trying my best to buy physical whenever possible but even Kirby Air Riders had an (admittedly modest) install of 2.2 gigs. I didn’t even think that there could maybe be a console with more than one SD slot so that’s a new thought to me. I wish the Switch 2 was called such for its TWO SD SLOTS. Ha!

Just trying to stay chipper.

[broodwars]

I've been sticking to buying physical only so far, so I haven't had any serious storage issues yet. The only time I've hit the cap was when I was downloading 2 different EA sports trial games for the sake of MyNintendo coins. I'm still using the SD card I had on my original Switch, and that seems to work well enough for the Switch 1 library I have stored on there.

I don't see this pattern changing all that much going forward unless Nintendo decides to go all-in on Key Cards for even 1st party in-house software, so I have no problem waiting for those insane SD card prices to go down.

[Evan_B]

My Switch 1 SD (which is 1TB) is perfectly fine, though I’ve done a bit of fridge cleaning since the days where I used to write reviews. The Switch 2 has been receiving all the other third party last-gen games that I never had the chance to play, which is why I’m presently hurting.

[ejamer]

Haha!  No problem - we aren't buying many games on Switch 2 because there have been so few exclusive titles that looked appealing. No games means never having to worry about storage space.  /s

... Ok, releases we cared about have been slow coming, but that's quickly changing. So I guess it's time to start watching what people do for storage? Xenoblade games alone will take up a huge chunk of the on-board memory, and why wouldn't we want to own all of those games?

(And no, "clean the fridge" isn't a phrase I'd like to revisit. It was fine with Wii/WiiWare content; that was a different time and place. It's not fine in 2026.)


We'll continue buying physical whenever possible, and hold out on a memory upgrade until it's absolutely needed in hopes that prices will drop. A 512 GB MicroSD Express seems like the minimum worth considering. Getting a 1 TB would be preferable if pricing drops *significantly*... but might be overkill anyway. By the time we need that much space, uninstalling some lesser played games shouldn't be that much of a burden.

I don't really trust some of the budget brands, so when it becomes necessary to upgrade, we'll probably pay a bit extra to get a trusted brand. Ideally, this will be a one-time expansion so shouldn't be that hard to justify.

[jarodea]

I bought a "cheap" 512GB card early on.  The prices are crazy though.  So far I mostly have to deal with the storage limit when I download whatever EA Sports game to get 100 platinum points for that week. 

[M.K.Ultra]

I only have Welcome Tour as a digital download, the rest of my games are cartridges. I don't have any game key cards yet, but I will probably get one for Mega Man. So I think my storage it fine. I did end up getting an SD card for Switch because there ended up being a bunch of download only titles but that just hasn't happened yet for switch 2.

[Evan_B]

Man, I must be a major outlier here! I'm surprised by how many of you have managed to stay relatively physical. I'll elaborate a bit.

I understand that the Game Key Card argument has been done to death, regardless, it worries me that I have a couple of games on GKCs that I might not be able to access if the GKC should be misplaced or for some reason become inoperative, despite having all the game data on my storage. Thus, I have resigned to buying any GKC-physical games digitally, which is not necessarily ideal, but somewhat more secure. The problem, of course, is those darned bloated filesizes: Pragmata was relatively slim, but Digimon Story: Time Stranger was... not, and Elden Ring... whoo boy, that's a big game. In addition to the new Witcher 3 Remaster and Dragon's Dogma 2 on the near horizon, I know in my heart of hearts that I won't have the space to fit a number of these games. Considering The Witcher is more of a game on the backburner, I will likely delete it to free up space so that I can return to it at a later date, but Dragon's Dogma 2 is something I want to always have readily accessible.

In addition, I have picked up a number of Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of games that are just sort of hanging out in my Storage. Annapurna's many releases have Switch 2 upgrades that, while appealing, are for games I've already beaten, so I don't need them stored at the moment and can maybe throw them on whatever MicroSD I finally get once they are more affordable. Having played all of Xenokart, I did delete Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (I just love writing that full name out, sorry), but I haven't yet gone through all the new features of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I know Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is out there... haunting me. I actually might just pick up a physical copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X Nintendo Switch 2 Edition because I love that game and I want to support its existence in whatever way I can, which would mitigate its size.

I am happy that Nintendo is doing a relative good by making their games lean and keeping them on cartridge. But I guess, especially having booted up Kirby Air Riders recently, I find many of their game releases on Switch to be a bit derivative and stale, so I've turned to other publishers to fill that void. Shame on me, I suppose.

[Mop it up]

The Switch 2 requiring the "express" SD nonsense is indeed lame, but I should be able to hold out for a while in hopes of prices regaining sanity. I kept my regular Switch around for all Switch 1 related content, and I play third-party games on the Xbox, so I'm mainly interested in just the exclusive stuff for Switch 2, which is largely Nintendo.