What are Nintendo virtual game cards, and how does lending work?
How Nintendo turned digital Switch and Switch 2 games into cards you load, eject and lend, and the limits on consoles, lending and family groups.
Published 3 min read
In short
Virtual game cards are how Nintendo handles digital games and DLC bought on the Nintendo eShop: each purchase behaves like a cartridge you can load onto, or eject from, one of up to two linked consoles.
A loaded card plays offline and can be used by every other user on that console. Swapping cards between the two consoles needs both to be on or in sleep mode and online.
You can lend up to three cards at a time to members of your Nintendo Account family group, for 14 days each, with the consoles close together; you cannot play a game while it is lent out.
Physical game cards have one obvious advantage over downloads: you can take a cartridge out of one console and put it in another, or hand it to someone. Nintendo’s virtual game cards bring a version of that to digital games. They apply on both Nintendo Switch 2 and the original Switch. Everything below comes from Nintendo’s own support guide.
What counts as a virtual game card?
Every game and every piece of DLC you buy on the Nintendo eShop is treated as a virtual game card. You manage them from Virtual Game Cards on the HOME Menu.
How do loading and ejecting work?
You can link up to two consoles to use your virtual game cards, for example a Switch 2 and an older Switch. A card has to be loaded on one of them to be played, and you can move it back and forth between the two as you would a cartridge.
- There is no limit on how many cards you load onto one console, other than storage space. You do not need to eject one card to load another.
- Moving a card between the two consoles requires both to be switched on or in sleep mode, and connected to the internet.
- Once loaded, a card can be played without an internet connection.
- Every other user on that console who can load virtual game cards can play your loaded games and DLC.
Nintendo publishes a separate guide for players who want their games on more than two consoles.
How does lending to family work?
Lending is how you let someone else play your game on their own console. Nintendo sets several conditions:
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who can borrow | Members of your Nintendo Account family group, which holds up to 8 accounts |
| How many you can lend | Up to 3 cards at a time |
| How many a borrower can hold | One game at a time, and not from several lenders at once |
| Per console | Only one card at a time to any one console |
| Mixed consoles | No lending to a console with users from more than one family group |
| Where | Both consoles must be close to each other to lend or borrow |
| How long | 14 days, then the card returns automatically |
| DLC | Any DLC you bought for the game is lent with it |
The borrower can return a card early, and you can take it back early if you need to. While a game is lent, you cannot play it yourself. Some games do not support lending at all.
Lending is not the only way to share. Anyone who uses one of your two linked consoles can already play your loaded cards without borrowing them.
How does this fit with Switch 2?
Virtual game cards are one of the ways a Switch library carries over to Switch 2. A Switch 2 can be linked with a Switch so that a card can be loaded on either, and cards can be lent between Switch 2 and Switch consoles in the same family group. Whether an individual Switch game runs fully on Switch 2 is a separate question; our guide to Switch 2 backward compatibility covers that.