The Best Open-World Games for Nintendo Switch

When the Nintendo Switch was first revealed, the two biggest selling points for the new hybrid console were its first and third-party open-world games: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, respectively. So naturally, open-world games have become a bit of a staple on the platform, which has ultimately carried over into the backward-compatible Switch 2 hardware. Being able to take massive, sprawling open worlds on the go is a luxury that simply wasn’t possible before the Nintendo Switch and its unprecedented success, and there are now dozens of great open-world games available for the hardware that allow players to do just that. The following titles are the best of the bunch, offering up immersive and rewarding experiences that are worth getting lost in for dozens (or hundreds) of hours.

• Release Date — November 14, 2023
• Developer — Avalanche Software, Shiver Entertainment
• Publisher — Portkey Games
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)

Admittedly, Hogwarts Legacy on the Switch was easily the worst way to play the game when it first arrived on the console (months after its launch on other platforms). But thanks to some helpful patches that addressed some of the more glaring technical issues, and even more thanks to the Switch 2 upgrade, Hogwarts Legacy on Switch and Switch 2 is now comparable to its other versions, making it one of the best open-world games on those platforms. Even if you’re not the biggest fan of the Harry Potter books or the Wizarding World universe in which they’re based, Hogwarts Legacy has plenty of great content to keep fans of compelling open-world action-adventure games busy for quite a while, including some surprisingly excellent spell-slinging combat.

• Release Date — May 14, 2021
• Developer — Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Panic Button
• Publisher — Unknown Worlds Entertainment
• Genre — Survival
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)

There are a number of open-world survival games that could slot into a list of the best open-world titles on Switch, but when push comes to shove, none of them come close to reaching the same level of quality as Subnautica. Subnautica is a survival, crafting, and base-building game at its core, but its ability to routinely terrify players with the discoverable creatures that lurk in its vast ocean planet helps it gain a little bit of a horror edge, too. And if you can find the strength to brave the ocean depths, you’re treated to one of the most addictive and compelling survival game loops as you venture out, collect samples, gather resources, and then bring it all back to your underwater research station to upgrade and do it all over again.

• Release Date — January 28, 2022
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)

While Pokémon Sword and Shield incorporated semi-open-world zones that players could travel between, the first truly open-world game in the series would end up being Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and it’s easily still the best game in the franchise to adopt the format. By taking the franchise back into the Pokémon universe’s past, Arceus was able to give players a unique trip through history that fired on all cylinders when it came to both combat and exploration. It’s still a Pokémon game, but Arceus leans more toward being an action RPG than the mainline titles in the series, and its gorgeous open world is rife with opportunity for discovery and adventure that proves to be continually rewarding.

• Release Date — October 19, 2021
• Developer — Techland
• Publisher — Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Genre — Survival Horror
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)

It says a lot about the Switch version of Dying Light that it has the highest review aggregate score. Dying Light was already a fantastic open-world zombie parkour game that somehow became better on the Switch, partly because of its inclusion of all post-launch content but mostly because of it being an excellent port that had the advantage of being portable. Going out during the day and scaling buildings to scavenge supplies and try to find a cure for the zombie plague ravaging the city of Harran, only to run for your life once night falls and retreat to the safety of shelter, is a compelling gameplay loop that’s bookended by some incredible combat and fluid first-person traversal, and the bonus of being able to take it on-the-go makes the Switch version one of the best ways to play Dying Light.

• Release Date — December 3, 2020
• Developer — Ubisoft Quebec
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)

There’s a strong case for Immortals: Fenyx Rising being one of the best open-world games that hardly anyone played, and its Switch version is more than up to par with its other console counterparts. Imagine a Greek mythology-themed Breath of the Wild, and you’re not too far off from what Immortals brings to the table. It’s undeniably a Ubisoft open-world game at its core, but it executes that formula to near perfection while also adding in plenty of charm and a sense of adventure that makes it feel eerily like a cross between Zelda and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Combat, exploration, and progression are all tuned in such a way that each different activity you engage in across its gorgeous open world feels worthwhile and necessary, and its surprisingly low commercial sales mean you can regularly grab it for a huge discount.

• Release Date — April 23, 2019
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Action RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)

The original Dragon’s Dogma is another incredible action RPG that went criminally underplayed during its release window, only for the game to find a dedicated cult following after its Dark Arisen re-release on PS3 and Xbox 360. Interestingly enough, the release of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen on Switch was a much bigger deal and at least partially responsible for Capcom’s renewed interest in the franchise that gave us Dragon’s Dogma II. Dark Arisen is an incredible game that uses its open world wisely, making players really consider where they’re going and what they’re doing since every single excursion outside the safety of the city walls brings you that much closer to a fatal encounter with a cyclops or griffin. It’s a tough game, but that challenge is a large part of what makes Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen so special in the Switch library.

• Release Date — November 17, 2017
• Developer — Bethesda Game Studios, Iron Galaxy
• Publisher — Bethesda Softworks
• Genre — Action RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)

When the initial reveal trailers for the Switch were debuted by Nintendo, it seemed too good to be true to see The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim not just running on Nintendo hardware, but seamlessly transitioning between handheld and television displays. Sure enough, Nintendo, Bethesda, and Iron Galaxy pulled it off, with Skyrim serving as one of the first major third-party killer apps for the Switch and signaling that it was a console tailor-made for ports of 7th and 8th-gen titles. Aside from its importance to the Switch as a platform, though, Skyrim is still the incredible action RPG it’s always been, and a large part of its appeal comes from its immersive and freeform open world, where every dalliance from the critical path holds the promise of adventure.

• Release Date — October 7, 2022
• Developer — Hello Games
• Publisher — Hello Games
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Survival
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)

By the time No Man’s Sky arrived on the Switch, the game had already undergone a complete 180 from its disappointing launch to become one of the all-time great open-world sandbox games. Somehow, Hello Games was able to squeeze No Man’s Sky‘s impressive scope and litany of free updates down onto the Switch with very little compromise, and it’s only continued to get better from there. In fact, as of the time of writing, the Switch 2 upgrade for No Man’s Sky has the current highest review aggregate score for any version of the game, proving that Nintendo’s hardware is a perfect fit for Hello Games’ now-iconic spacefaring survival and base-building game.

• Release Date — October 15, 2019
• Developer — CD Projekt RED, Saber Interactive
• Publisher — CD Projekt RED
• Genre — Action RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)

Similar to Skyrim, the reveal that CD Projekt RED was working on a port of The Witcher 3 to the Switch seemed almost too good to be true. Surely if they were able to pull it off, it wouldn’t be without significant compromise, right? Wrong. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is arguably one of the most impressive ports on the Switch, and while it won’t blow anyone who’s played the PC version away, its visuals and performance are pretty comparable to what they were on a base PS4 or Xbox One. And again, much like Skyrim, the core gameplay of Witcher 3 still cements it as one of the best open-world action RPGs ever made with some of the all-time greatest quest design and writing in the genre.

• Release Date — August 17, 2023
• Developer — Rockstar San Diego, Double Eleven
• Publisher — Rockstar Games
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)

The less that’s said about the especially disappointing ports of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy to Switch, the better, but thankfully, Red Dead Redemption‘s Switch version more than makes up for it. The decision to remaster and port Red Dead Redemption to PC and modern consoles was a long time coming for the 7th-generation classic, and its Switch version is arguably one of the best ways to play it, thanks to its portability and inclusion of the excellent Undead Nightmare DLC. There are some occasional performance dips when you get into the more vast, open areas of Rockstar’s expertly crafted Wild West sandbox, but the core experience still maintains the fantastic combat and quest design that Red Dead Redemption has always had.

• Release Date — July 29, 2022
• Developer — Monolith Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

By their nature, RPGs have traditionally been one of the earliest genres in gaming to incorporate an open-world structure. But not all RPG open worlds are created equal, which makes the truly special ones stand out even more. We’ve already highlighted a handful of Western action RPGs that have some phenomenal open worlds, but when it comes to a traditional JRPG with one of the best open world settings on Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the easy answer. The third game in the trilogy does a great job of sticking the landing and closing out Monolith’s ambitious interconnected sci-fi plot, but more than that, it’s a phenomenal RPG with a vast and interesting world to explore and some incredible combat.

• Release Date — May 11, 2017
• Developer — Mojang Studios
• Publisher — Mojang Studios
• Genre — Survival, Sandbox, Crafting
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)

It’d be impossible to make a comprehensive list of the best open-world games on Switch and not include Minecraft. Mojang’s wildly successful and influential sandbox creation game is still just as important now as it was when it originally released back in 2012, and the Switch version continues to be one of the most popular console versions of the game thanks to its portability and features. You could even say that Minecraft‘s success on the Switch helped serve as a signal that survival games could thrive on the platform, paving the way for developers to bring great titles like Subnautica, Green Hell, and more over to Nintendo’s hybrid console. And unlike the other games on this list, Minecraft is the one title that allows players to shape the open world that they explore.

• Release Date — March 20, 2025
• Developer — Monolith Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)

One of this year’s best games just so happens to be a port of a criminally overlooked Wii U title, with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition finally freeing the game from its exclusivity on dead hardware and improving its visuals and performance in a way befitting its incredible gameplay and open world setting. While Xenoblade Chronicles X is connected to the mainline Xenoblade Chronicles series, it’s much more of an action game than a fully-fledged RPG, and its emphasis on open world exploration and questing gives it a pace that’s much more in line with other open world action adventure titles than a traditional role-playing game. And with its release so close to the launch of the Switch 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is one of the few first-party titles with a noticeable free upgrade on Nintendo’s new hardware.

• Release Date — March 3, 2017
• Developer — Nintendo EPD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 97% (Universal Acclaim)

All these years later, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still about as close to a perfect Zelda game as you can get, with the one exception being its sequel (which we’ll get to shortly). Breath of the Wild clearly strikes a similar chord as the original Legend of Zelda in how it drops players into a vast world full of adventure and simply cuts them loose to tackle it as they see fit, and the variance that you see in how different players choose to approach Breath of the Wild‘s gameplay proves that its a rock-solid premise executed to near perfection. Whether you want to beeline it for Hyrule Castle and challenge Ganon at full strength or tackle all 120 Shrines before even attempting any part of the main quest is up to you.

• Release Date — May 12, 2023
• Developer — Nintendo EPD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)

The one game that could possibly top Breath of the Wild as the Switch’s best open-world game is, of course, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which expands on BotW‘s open-world approach in a number of important ways. The inclusion of the Ultrahand crafting and building system is a genius addition to the open-world Zelda gameplay loop that lets players flex their creativity in unprecedented ways, and the expansion of Link’s adventures in both directions (underground into the Depths and above into the Sky Isles) shakes up the exploration and quest design to have a profound effect on the game’s pacing and sense of direction. Tears of the Kingdom is the bigger, better version of Breath of the Wild that stands tall as the definitive open-world experience on Switch hardware.