The Nintendo Switch 2 is fantastic—already a contender for the biggest gaming hardware launch of 2025. I'm still playing it daily—monkeying around in Donkey Kong Bananza, enjoying tearing up its destructible game worlds, whether I'm playing on the big screen or tucked up in bed with handheld mode.
Unfortunately, just two months on from release, my console’s drive is already full. Since my copy of Bananza is digital, I've had to start juggling game installs to experience the great ape’s latest adventure. I'm probably an outlier in having maxed out capacity already, but storage anxiety is an issue that's likely to worsen for many users over the Switch 2's lifespan, and there don't appear to be any easy fixes on the horizon.
Storage Wars
At a glance, the Switch 2's storage situation looks rosy. The console itself comes with 256 GB, which is eight times more than the original Switch's paltry 32 GB and four times the 64 GB of the Switch OLED. System software on Switch 2 is impressively small, using a smidge over 6 GB, leaving owners with a generous-sounding ~249 GB. The problem is that 249 GB ain't what it used to be, and the Switch 2 demands you use far more of that storage than the original Switch did.
The latest generation of performance, such as 4K HDR output, is necessary as Nintendo competes against both home console rivals Sony and Microsoft, and the growing number of handheld gaming PCs aiming for the Switch's portable gaming crown. However, improvements mean bigger installs for Switch 2 native games, eating up more and more of that precious space.
While Nintendo has mastered getting big results from small game sizes—open-world racer Mario Kart World is 24 GB digitally, while Donkey Kong Bananza clocks in at a mere 8.7 GB—other developers aren't as trim. JRPG Bravely Default HD, a remaster of a Nintendo 3DS game, eats up 11 GB (albeit likely down to its significant original mini games that use the Switch 2's mouse mode controls), while co-op adventure Split Fiction demands a staggering 69.2 GB—over a quarter of the internal storage for that one game alone.
If you think that sounds like an incentive to embrace physical media instead, saving space for digital-only games … well, you'd be right. Unfortunately, on Switch 2, that's not the option it once was.
A Key Problem
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
The issue is exacerbated by Nintendo's introduction of GameKey Cards for some physical games. These don't have games installed on them, merely a bearer token that allows users to download a game digitally while requiring the cartridge to be inserted to play it. Although at the time of writing, Nintendo itself hasn't released any of its first-party games in the GameKey Card format, almost every third-party game released for the Switch 2 has opted for GKCs (Cyberpunk 2077 is a notable exception; the entire game is on the cartridge).