How to Delete Games on Nintendo Switch [Guide]

The Nintendo Switch is one of the best handheld consoles available for those who miss the good old PSP by Sony. The Nintendo Switch has an ample number of games available for players to purchase and play. Notable ones for the Nintendo Switch are Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda, Terraria, and Super Mario just to name a few. This guide is a little bit different useful if you play games on Nintendo Switch but want to delete files. Here you will know how to delete games on Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Switch was released back in 2017 and still has a strong user base all thanks to the games that the players love. The Nintendo Switch came with only a 32 GB storage variant which kind of is a downside, but you could always increase storage with expandable SD cards of up to 2TB. Well, not everyone would prefer to buy an external storage card for the Switch of course some do. But for those who don’t, the onboard storage isn’t enough, especially if you have installed your favorite games and want to download another game that has just been released.

Worry not! Today we’ll be going through how to delete a game on Nintendo and even archive a game so that you could clear up some storage for that new game or whatever you like to use that storage for. So, let’s take a look at how to delete games that you have downloaded to your Nintendo switch. It is a simple process, but make sure to follow all the steps correctly.

Deleting Games on Nintendo Switch

  1. On the home screen on your Switch, head over to the game you want to delete.
  2. Now press the + button that’s present on your joycons. It will open the Software information page.
  3. On the menu select Manage Software that can be seen towards the left.
  4. Now Select Delete Software. This will show a prompt message asking if you want to delete the game or no.
  5. Select Delete to remove the game from your Nintendo Switch.

Alternate method to delete Switch Games

  1. In your Nintendo Switch go to System Settings.
    How to delete games on Nintendo Switch
  2. Scroll down to Data Management that will be on the left panel.
  3. Now in the Data Management, go to the Software section.
  4. Scroll and select the game you want to delete from your Nintendo Switch.
  5. Then select Delete Software and confirm it.
  6. It will now delete your game and give you the success message.

That is, it! Your game has been deleted and you have reclaimed some storage space. Do not worry about the save files as these won’t get deleted and you can always pick up from where you left the game by simply re-downloading the game. But in case if you have no plan to re-install that game ever or don’t care about progress, then you can also delete Save files. Now, we’ll be showing you how to delete save game files on Switch.

How to delete games on Nintendo Switch

Deleting game save files on Switch

  1. On your home screen select System Settings.
  2. In the settings look at the left panel and select Data Management.
  3. Select the Delete Save Data section.
  4. Here, browse and select the game for which you want to remove save data.
  5. Now, it’ll ask you to select the profile from which you want to delete the file.
  6. If you just want to delete everything select Delete All Data for This Software.
  7. Now a dialogue box pops asking you want to delete the data or no. Select Delete Save Data.
  8. It will show the success dialog box.

And that is how you can clear up a bit more space on your Switch by remove game save on Nintendo Switch. Do keep in mind that when you redownload the game, you will have to start all over as your progress has been zapped.

Archive Games on Nintendo Switch

  1. On your home screen head over to the game, you want to delete.
  2. Now press the + button that’s present on your joycons.
  3. On the menu select Manage Software that can be seen towards the left.
  4. Here, select the Archive Software option.
  5. It will now bring up a prompt that will ask if you want to Archive a game or no.
  6. Select Archive and it will free up some space on your Nintendo Switch.

That’s it. You have now archived the game on Nintendo Switch. What archiving a game does is it uninstalls the game from your switch but leaves the game’s shortcut icon on your home screen. So that if you ever want to install that game again, you can always do so. Plus archiving a game will not delete your game’s save files which otherwise will be a headache if you’ve spent enough time progressing through that particular game only to have found out that all that time and effort that has been out in – all gone in vain.

If you don’t want to delete games since you keep switching between them and are actually running out of space then the best solution is to invest in some high-capacity SD Cards that are supported by your Nintendo Switch. It’s always an option to delete games on Switch if you don’t like it or play it anymore. Saves you from running out of storage and panicking about what to do next.

So that’s all on how to delete games on Nintendo Switch. I hope this guide also clear your doubt if you should archive or delete a game on Nintendo switch. Although it’s an easy method, you should always invest some time researching before deleting any files. Let us know your favorite Nintendo Switch game.

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Joshua D'souza

Enjoy games, 90's hip-hop, and tech. Loves exploring the infinite world of laptops and food. Every ready to provide assistance in anything that rocks his boat. Will gladly enjoy capturing memories through various lenses. Worked previously at PiunikaWeb as an author and researcher.

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