Nintendo has announced that its Nintendo Switch Online service has reached over 9.8 million subscribers since its launch in September 2018. The news was announced in a financial results briefing last week.
The 9.8 million subscriber count is a global total, that includes family accounts. This, however, does not include the free trial subscriptions. The company also announced last week that since the launch of Nintendo Switch in 2017, more than 34.74 million units have been sold. This suggests that a third of the Switch owners have now subscribed to the online service.
The report also takes about Tetris 99 as a success story for Switch Online. Tetris 99 is a free-to-play game, but requires Switch Online membership, and so far the game has been played by 2.8 million accounts. The company has said that the title has helped improve overall engagements on the Nintendo Switch.
Another reason for its success might be due to the collection of NES titles that the subscribers can get access to. This library of classic games keeps growing every month, which Nintendo says is being enjoyed by subscribers very much. Nintendo also reiterates that they are looking at more ways to make Nintendo Switch Online “more attractive” going forward. Though it was not specified how they plan to do just that.
Nintendo Switch Online is greatly cheaper than the likes of PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold, costing $19.99 for a yearly subscription, compared to $59.99 for the online services of Xbox and PlayStation. There is no denying that both PlayStation and Xbox offer free monthly games, which is why the higher price of these services can be justified.
Nintendo Switch Online gives players the opportunity to play online multiplayer in games such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Splatoon 2, in addition to the library of NES titles. The most important reason to go for the online service is for the cloud save feature, which allows you to safely back up your game files online.
Are you a subscriber of Nintendo Switch Online? What features do you like the most? Post your comments below.