Is a Nintendo Switch Online Membership Worth It?

Before 2020, my husband and I had no interest in having a Nintendo Switch Online Membership. We didn’t own any Nintendo games where having an online membership was necessary. And whenever we wanted to play a video game with friends, we would invite them over to our home. Then corona happened…

All of a sudden my husband and I couldn’t have friends over whenever we wanted. We missed playing video games with friends, so we looked into a Nintendo Switch Online Membership and discovered it was actually a great deal and not only gave us our money’s worth in being able to play with friends again, but also gave us a lot of free stuff only for Nintendo Switch Online members. Today, I’m going to talk about why you need a Nintendo Switch Online Membership!

Also, before I get started, I just want you to know I am NOT sponsored by Nintendo or any sort of business. This blog post is purely informational and something I think is useful for Nintendo Switch owners to know.

How Much Does a Nintendo Switch Online Membership Cost?

First off, the Nintendo Switch Online Membership is a GREAT deal. For a full year subscription for an Individual Membership, it’s only $19.99! However, you don’t want to get an Individual Membership, you want to get a Family Membership. The Family Membership is only $34.99! You’re probably thinking that’s a lot of money, but considering you can put EIGHT different users on it, it’s a way better deal than the Individual Membership! However, a user doesn’t count as one Nintendo Switch. A user is a single profile you make on a Nintendo Switch. So, if you’re thinking you can have eight Nintendo Switches, and unlimited users from each Nintendo Switch accessing the Nintendo Switch Online membership, that’s not going to work. You could still split the family membership to eight consoles, you just need to only have one user per console on it.

My husband and I both use our profiles, so we took up two of the family membership slots. Then, we filled the remaining six slots with friends and family members we wanted to play with. That way, we could play with them whenever we wanted (take that COVID!!!). If you do the same thing we did, where you just work with seven other users who want a Nintendo Switch Online Membership as well, you all can split the cost and each person will only have to pay about $4 every year! That’s a WAY better deal than just buying an Individual Nintendo Switch Online Membership! Plus, then you’ll actually have friends to play with! A Nintendo Switch Online Membership is kind of pointless if you don’t have people to play with.

How Often Do I Use My Nintendo Switch Online Membership?

I can understand someone not wanting a Nintendo Switch Online Membership if they NEVER play video games with anyone else. But I’m a social person and LOVE to play video games with other people. So, I use my Nintendo Switch Online Membership all the time! We honestly thought about getting a Nintendo Switch Online Membership even earlier than 2020 since my parents live on the other side of the country and we love playing video games with them! But we talked ourselves out of it thinking it was going to be expensive and we would never use it. But once COVID-19 hit, we looked into it with a lot more depth and realized that a Nintendo Switch Online Membership is actually a really good deal! Plus, it fixed our problem of not being able to get together with friends nearby, or play online with my family on the other side of the country.

I play a lot of games online including: Luigi’s Mansion 3, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, Overcooked 2 and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. Most of the time I’ve only played with one or two other people online at the same time. But I’ve also played online with several people at once! My birthday came right when everything was shutting down due to COVID-19. But my husband was able to throw me an AWESOME online Smash Brothers birthday party where we got to play online with our families! It was really awesome and honestly one of my favorite moments from this year. And because of our Nintendo Switch Online membership, we were able to include my parents and brother who wouldn’t have been able to participate otherwise!

How Do You Get a Nintendo Switch Online Membership?

There’s two ways you can buy a Nintendo Switch Online Membership. You can go to Amazon and look up: Nintendo Switch Online Membership. There, you will be given the option to buy either an Individual or Family Membership plan. The other way you can get a Nintendo Switch Online Membership is to go through the Nintendo eShop on your Nintendo Switch. My husband and I bought our Family Membership through the Nintendo eShop, and its a pretty simple process! Here is a step-by-step process for purchasing a Nintendo Switch Online Membership through the Nintendo eShop:

1. If you have never used the Nintendo eShop, you’ll need to first make a Nintendo eShop account. You can use the Nintendo eShop for lots of things, including downloading free content and buying games to download onto your Nintendo Switch.
2. Once you have an eShop account set up, log in.
3. Once you login, there will be a bunch of tabs on the left side of your Nintendo eShop home page. Click on the tab that says “Nintendo Switch Online”.

4. Look through the different subscription plans and find the one you want. Then click “Proceed to Purchase”.

Also, on the main page of Nintendo Switch Online, there’s a list of games that support online play. So, you can look and see which of your games you already own support online play! They also list Special offers and games you can download for free once you become a member of Nintendo Switch Online! Some of the free stuff you get are a collection of NES and SNES games!

If you are still trying to decide if a Nintendo Switch Online Membership is something you want, you could buy a short term Nintendo Switch Online Membership to try it out! You can get a one-month Individual subscription for $3.99, or you could get a three-month Individual subscription for $7.99. Unfortunately they don’t have a short term Family plan, so for a short-term trial you’ll need to buy either the one-month or three-month Individual Membership. 

I truly think a Nintendo Switch Online Membership is worth it. It enables me to play with my friends and family whenever I want! Plus, splitting the Family Nintendo Switch Online membership is probably a much better deal than other subscriptions you might already have! $4.38 a person for a whole year is really hard to beat! If you love playing video games with friends, or want to check out any of the online features of a game, I would 100 percent recommend getting a Nintendo Switch Online membership!

That’s it for this post! Thanks for reading! Do you have a Nintendo Switch Online Membership? If you do, do you think it’s worth it? Let me know in the comments below!

Also for those of you who are interested, I have an Instagram and YouTube! Follow me on Instagram @saber2thtigress and subscribe to my YouTube channel which is Sabertooth Tigress!