Nintendo Support

How to Play Your Games Across Multiple Nintendo Switch 2 or Nintendo Switch Consoles

Steps for sharing games across multiple consoles in your household.

What to do

What would you like to do?

Game save data and your digital games and downloadable content are tied to your Nintendo Account.

If you are replacing a Nintendo Switch console with a Nintendo Switch 2 console, we recommend that you perform a system transfer to move your Nintendo Switch data to your Nintendo Switch 2 console.

This will move your Nintendo Accounts, user profiles, save data, and Nintendo eShop purchases to the replacement console.
This moves all users at once.

If you are replacing a Nintendo Switch 2 console with another Nintendo Switch 2 console, or a Nintendo Switch console with another Nintendo Switch console, we recommend that you transfer your user data from the original Nintendo Switch 2 or Nintendo Switch console to your replacement console.

This will move your Nintendo Account, user, save data and Nintendo eShop purchases to the replacement console.
Data is moved one user at a time, so you can keep other users on the original console.

What type of games do you want to play on the consoles?

To play physical game cards on multiple consoles, insert the game card into the console you want to play on and select the game's icon from the HOME Menu.

How many consoles do you want to play on?

Two

If you have two consoles you want to use to play your digital games or downloadable content, please follow the virtual game card guide.

Three or more

If you would like to play your digital games or DLC on more than two consoles, you can enable the online licence setting. When enabled, you can play downloaded software or DLC you've purchased while the console is connected to the internet, even if you don't have a virtual game card loaded.

To enable the online licence feature for your Nintendo Account and play on any of your consoles, follow these steps:

Link your Nintendo Account to all of the consoles that you want to play your digital games on.
On one of the consoles, select your user icon from the HOME Menu.
Scroll down and select Online Licence Settings.
Enable the "Use Online Licences" setting.
- This enables the setting for your Nintendo Account on all of your consoles. You do not need to set it on each console.
Download the games or content you want to access on each console.
On any of your consoles, insert the physical game card or select your downloaded game from the HOME Menu to begin playing the game on that console. Note that you can also continue to use virtual game cards on two of your consoles, even if you have enabled the online licence setting.

If you have enabled the online licence setting, this message may appear from time to time. When this setting is enabled and you start a game that is not loaded as a virtual game card, you must have an active internet connection.

For more details, read “Checking whether this software can be played…” Message When Starting Software.

This error code usually indicates that your Nintendo Account is being used to play your digital content on another console.

You cannot use your Nintendo Account to access games on multiple consoles simultaneously.

For more details, read Error Code: 2819-0003.

Additional information

Game save data is associated with your Nintendo Account and the console you play on. If you want to use the same save data on different consoles, you can transfer the data or use Save Data Cloud backup if you have a Nintendo Switch Online membership.

Transferring save data will remove the save data from the source console and move it to the target console.

You can transfer save data as often as you need.

For details, read How to Transfer Your Save Data To a Nearby Nintendo Switch Console.

If you have a Nintendo Switch Online membership, you can use Save Data Cloud to back up save data from one console and download it on another.

To back up save data:
- Using the Nintendo Switch console that has the save data you want to back up, open the game's Options menu and select Save Data Cloud.
- Select the desired user, then select Back Up Save Data.
To download save data:
- Using the Nintendo Switch console that you want to download the save data to, open the game's Options menu and select Save Data Cloud.
- Select the desired user, then select Download Save Data.

For more details, read How to Back Up Save Data on Nintendo Switch and How to Download Save Data Cloud Backups.

Will you be sharing physical game cards or downloaded games/content?

To share a physical game with another user, have them insert the game card into the console they want to play on and select the game's icon from the HOME Menu.

Game save data is associated with the Nintendo Account and the console, not the game card.

If a user wants to use the same save data on different consoles, there are two options:

Save data can be transferred from one console to another nearby console.
If the user has a Nintendo Switch Online membership, they can use Save Data Cloud to back up save data from one console and download it on another.
- For more details, read How to Back Up Save Data on Nintendo Switch and How to Download Save Data Cloud Backups.

Digital games and downloadable content are tied to the Nintendo Account that was used to purchase them. Other people can only play your digital content if they are playing on a console where you have loaded the content as a virtual game card, and vice versa.

Nintendo Support

How to Play Your Games Across Multiple Nintendo Switch 2 or Nintendo Switch Consoles

What to do

What would you like to do?

Replace one console with another

Play games on multiple consoles

What type of games do you want to play on the consoles?

Physical game cards (without downloadable content)

Digital games, or physical games with downloadable content

How many consoles do you want to play on?

“Checking whether this software can be played…” message

Error Code: 2819-0003, "Play will be suspended."

Additional information

How to transfer save data from one console to another

How to use Save Data Cloud backup

Share games with other users

Will you be sharing physical game cards or downloaded games/content?

Physical game cards (without downloadable content)

How to use the same save data on multiple consoles

Digital games, or physical games with downloadable content

About Nintendo

Support

Parents

Community

Physical game cards (without downloadable content)

Digital games, or physical games with downloadable content

How many consoles do you want to play on?

“Checking whether this software can be played…” message

Error Code: 2819-0003, "Play will be suspended."

How to use Save Data Cloud backup

Physical game cards (without downloadable content)

How to use the same save data on multiple consoles

Digital games, or physical games with downloadable content

About Nintendo

Support

Parents

Community