The Switch 2 seems to be playing it safe at first glance, sticking to the same principles that allowed the original Switch to endure for 8 years. With the general perception that nostalgia fuels most of Nintendo’s audience, keeping true to tradition and appealing to fans of older titles makes sense. This is especially true in the modern entertainment industry where companies conservatively stick to established IP and characters to drive profit.
However, the Switch 2 represents a shift in general philosophy: This new console is more aware than ever of the importance of online play. The inclusion of GameChat shows Nintendo’s willingness to take remote play more seriously than in the past, underscoring the importance of online communities. To better appeal to that segment of the market, Nintendo may hope to attract the attention of streamers and tap into their communities. In this article, we’ll be looking at the reception of the Switch 2 on live streaming and the performance of its launch titles.
Which Switch 2 Games Performed Best on Live Streaming?
For starters, we decided to break down the 22 games released for Switch 2 so far, all of which released alongside the console on the 5th of June (with the exception of Raidou Remastered). We’ve split these Switch 2 games up into four distinct categories:
- First-party Original Games: Games that are completely new and exclusive to Switch 2
- Remakes & Remasters: Games being remade with the Switch 2 in mind
- Third-party Ports: Games that already existed on other consoles
- Enhanced Editions: Nintendo’s new concept, which are games with major upgrades marketed specifically for the Switch 2
In the first two weeks of release, first-party originals got all the attention from streamers covering new Switch 2 games, with Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour bringing in 24.6M and 804K hours watched, respectively. In contrast, other new games (mostly JRPG Remakes & Remasters) flew under the radar, with hours watched in the 10’s of thousands or less. This may shift as Switch 2 fans complete the First-party Original Games and seek out more entertainment among the console’s (currently) limited library.
Mario Kart World’s performance was the standout here, being the only game to match the performance of other AAA game releases on live-streaming platforms. Mario Kart 8 is the 5th highest selling game ever, with close to 77M copies sold: It stands to reason, then, that Nintendo banked on Mario Kart World having the selling power to incentivise early adopters to purchase the system. This effect was mirrored on live streaming, with Mario Kart World reaching the 9th most streamed game across all platforms in its first two weeks.
The Viewership Boost to Third-party Publishers with New Ports
Moving on to Third-party Ports and Enhanced Editions, it’s worth noting that we can’t track the viewership generated from people playing the Switch 2 versions of these games specifically. Instead, we’ve compared the % increase in viewership for these games in the two week period pre- vs. post-release. The relative spike or dip between these two periods can give us some insight into the effect of the Switch 2’s release on these games.
The game with by far the biggest boost in viewership following the Switch 2’s release was Civilization 7, which received a special “Nintendo Switch 2 Edition” that bumped up viewership for the game by 652% (up to 212K hours watched). Other winners among Third-party publishers were Capcom with Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (282% jump) and Toby Fox with Deltarune (119% jump, with new chapters added). Note that these are just % increases, so games with already high viewerships might not look dramatically boosted based on this graph, but really were. Take Fortnite for example, which saw an admirable 35% increase. But that’s actually HUGE: This means roughly 7M more hours watched post-Switch 2 release!
This support for Third-party Ports on live-streaming runs contrary to the current narrative that third-party game sales on the Switch 2 fell short of expectations. While people might not be buying these games as much, people online are at least interested in seeing how the Switch 2’s improved performance handles these games. This curiosity on live streaming may become a proof of concept for buyers and eventually lead them to trust Switch 2 for Third-party Ports moving forward – a big awareness win for Nintendo.
The Top Western Switch 2 Streamers Gravitated Towards Mario Kart World
While Nintendo has historically stayed away from big influencer marketing pushes (though they don’t mind featuring celebrities), this could be set to change. The Switch 2 has launched at a time when 73% of Gen Z gamers find games through streamers and content creators – to bring their games to a new generation, Nintendo needs to up its influencer marketing game. So which streamers are actually playing Nintendo games?
Short answer: Not who you’d expect. Japanese video game companies tend to activate their home market first, and there’s no shortage of popular VTubers that love to play Nintendo games. Despite this, looking at the top streamers playing Switch 2 games by hours watched in the first two weeks of the console’s release, not a single VTuber made it into the top 10 (Usada Pekora came in 15th with 247K hours watched). In fact the only Japanese streamer in the top 10 was P-Pチャンネル, a hardcore Super Mario fan and OG YouTuber whose streams of Mario Kart World propelled him into 8th position with 340K hours watched.
Instead, the most watched Switch 2 streamers were all Western, predominantly Twitch streamers including MOONMOON (944K), Etoiles (862K), and Mizkif (765K). This is a total departure from Nintendo’s typical YouTube audience, which is more kid friendly and also better adopted in Japan (as an alternative to Niconico). Even with the launch of the Switch 2, Nintendo targeted Western influencers on YouTube by sending advanced copies of the console to review video creators like Gameranx and Linus Tech Tips. So, the observed Twitch-heavy leaning may just be due to the overwhelming popularity of Mario Kart on a global level – it remains to be seen if this trend will continue for future first-party releases.
Twitch Audiences Want To Chat About the Switch 2’s Newest Features
Looking at games alone isn’t sufficient for deciphering how the live-streaming community feels about the Switch 2 itself. While hardcore fans of pre-existing franchises will take any opportunity they can to tune back into their favourite game worlds, including a port or a remaster on a new console, this motivation says nothing about whether viewers are inspired by the console itself. To get a better idea of how viewers felt about the Switch 2, we carried out an analysis of all comments mentioning “Switch 2” across the previously analyzed games.
Overall, viewers of Switch 2 games were largely satisfied with the console, with 51% of all messages being positive vs. just 13% negative sentiment. But we wanted to dive deeper and see what people were talking about. ⅓ of comments mentioning “Switch 2” were “Game-specific”, either critiquing ports of pre-existing games or merely celebrating their presence on the console. This topic was mostly positive, as were mentions of the “Switch 2’s Launch” and the “Switch 2’s Performance”. Performance is a big deal here: The Switch 2 positioned itself as having all the most-loved features of the Switch, but with an upgrade in power. Hearing this positive opinion of Performance validates Nintendo’s claims and will hopefully inspire more people to take the console’s performance seriously.
Some topics, however, were less positive. When it came to “Purchasing & Availability” and “Hardware & Features”, negative comments actually slightly outweighed positive comments. The former topic makes sense: Units selling out leaves diehard fans dissatisfied (3.5M units were sold in the first four days), and the Switch 2’s price point has been a topic of contention ever since it was announced. What’s more worrying is the negative sentiment around the Switch 2’s features, most of which centred around the underdeveloped GameChat feature like this comment: “Game chat is so overrated on the Switch 2 the quality of the camera is so bad”. Even as Nintendo upped their performance game and won back some points, their features felt outmoded and left the tech-savvy live-streaming audience feeling cold.
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Looking across the games, streamers, and chat messages, the overall reaction to the Switch 2 on live streaming seems… mixed. Twitch streamers are trying out the console, but only for a handful of games so far and the games themselves seem to be the motivating factor. Switch 2 is reaching new audiences beyond YouTube, but those audiences aren’t impressed with the Switch 2’s features. There’s a lot of work to be done to bring public opinion around to supporting the Switch 2.
There will be a few key litmus tests in the months to come. The release of new third-party games on Switch 2 will be a better gauge of adoption on the console than ports of old games that many streamers have already played. The chief example of this is the Switch 2-exclusive Souls-like The Duskbloods by FromSoftware, slated for 2026. With Souls-likes being immensely popular on Twitch in particular, the community will need to invest in a Switch 2 if they want to explore this title. Therefore, the launch of The Duskbloods will be Nintendo’s chance to make a connection with viewers and players outside their typical kid-friendly demographic – an influencer marketing campaign here could shift public opinion in their favour and redefine what the Switch 2 is capable of.
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