Private company

Nintendo eShop

Logo: Nintendo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons³

Online service for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Jun 6, 2011Founded¹

Websitewww.nintendo.com/store

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The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, and formerly available via the Nintendo Network for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo eShop served as the successor to both the Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop. It is also a multitasking application, which means it is easily accessible even when a game is already running in the background through the system software. The Nintendo eShop features downloadable games, demos, applications, streaming videos, consumer rating feedback, and other information on upcoming game releases. The service was discontinued globally for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in March 2023, continuing only on the Switch and Switch 2.²

Products and brands

Former markets

Certain markets originally had official access to a variation of the Nintendo eShop at one point, but Nintendo had discontinued the service in those markets for various reasons without a present follow-up, or for long periods of time.

Many South American and Caribbean markets originally had access to a limited variant of the Nintendo eShop on both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, whilst Asian markets such as Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates originally had access to a limited variant of the eShop on Nintendo 3DS only. Many of the markets listed were not followed up with any official access to the eShop on succeeding platforms as of present, even if said platforms were officially available. However, it was confirmed that the Nintendo eShop service would officially re-launch as a full service in Singapore and Malaysia, in addition to Thailand on November 18, 2025, with the release date for the Philippines to be announced at a later date.

The Taiwanese market has had a complicated history with Nintendo products in the 2010s. The Nintendo 3DS was officially launched in Taiwan, and one time had access to a Chinese variation of the Nintendo eShop which it shared with Hong Kong. Although the Nintendo Switch was eventually officially launched in Taiwan, Hong Kong had gained official access to the eShop on Nintendo Switch since April 3, 2018, whilst Taiwan has not had the service until September 9, 2025, after the Nintendo Switch 2 launched. The Wii U was never officially released in either Hong Kong or Taiwan.

On May 31, 2023, Nintendo was obligated to close the eShop on the Nintendo Switch in Russia after more than a year's hiatus due to reasons beyond their control, likely as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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The Tencent variant of the Nintendo Switch eShop closed in China on March 31, 2026.

Deluxe Digital Promotion and Nintendo Network Premium

On September 13, 2012, during a Japanese Nintendo Direct presentation, Satoru Iwata introduced a new service called Deluxe Digital Promotion (North America)/Nintendo Network Premium (Europe, Australia, and Japan). It was a loyalty program similar to PlayStation Plus offered on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Gold on Xbox Live.

Consumers who purchased the Wii U Deluxe Pack in North America, or the Wii U Premium Pack in Europe and Japan, would receive a free two-year subscription to this service which lets Wii U owners receive points for each digital purchase.

Members who bought games and apps through the Wii U Nintendo eShop would receive ten percent of the price back in points, which could be exchanged for eShop credit on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShop. Points could be exchanged for eShop credit through March 31, 2015.

The program was discontinued on April 1, 2015. The service was never fully implemented beyond its promotional period.

The My Nintendo program formerly featured a similar concept for anyone who links their Nintendo Network ID to their Nintendo Account profile, and users could earn Gold Points via any Nintendo eShop purchase. For a period of time, users were able to redeem Gold Points for download codes or discount coupons available on My Nintendo for specific Wii U and Nintendo 3DS titles. Gold Points themselves could still be used to discount any purchases made on the Nintendo Switch. The ability to earn Gold Points had been discontinued as of March 2025.

Downloadable software

Retail releases

The majority of Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and select Wii retail releases are on the Nintendo eShop. The first was New Super Mario Bros. 2, launched on the Nintendo 3DS eShop alongside its retail release in August 2012. A system update in March 2013 allowed players to transfer save data from a physical version of a game to a download version.

Download-only releases

Any video game company, particularly independent video game developers, may publish via the Nintendo eShop as download-only software for the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch. Various games, which may be sold as retail games in some regions, might be released as download-only software in others for various reasons, such as cost-effective localization.

3D Classics

3D Classics is a series of NES/Famicom, Arcade, Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System, and SG-1000 games remade with added 3D visuals and updated features, although the overall graphics retain their original art style and appearance. These are exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS family.

Add-on content

Add-on content includes downloadable content (DLC) or microtransactions to augment existing games with new features, and patches. This content can both be free to download or purchasable. Add-on software can be added to both downloadable and physical games, and be purchased either individually or via in-game stores.

Demos

As of December 6, 2011, a system update upgraded the service to feature downloadable demos of retail games and eShop games. Developers have the option to limit access to demos, such as limiting the number of plays available to the user. When the number of plays reaches zero, the demo cannot be opened. The first paid demo was released in Japan on August 4, 2011, and free demos were further released in Japan on December 27, of the same year and in North America on January 19, 2012. As of December 9, 2013, Nintendo Network IDs were implemented onto the Nintendo 3DS, becoming required for downloading free demos from the eShop.

Software updates

Software updates, more commonly known as patches, have been available on both Nintendo 3DS, since April 25, 2012, and Wii U, since November 18, 2012, via a system update. These system updates gave the ability to patch downloadable and retail releases, through both the Nintendo eShop and HOME Menu. These patches have the main purpose of fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs and improving usability or performance. Patches can also be downloaded while using other applications via the systems' Download Manager.

Video services

The Nintendo eShop offers a wide range of video streaming applications, which correspond to third party streaming services. Some of these services' applications are available for download on Nintendo 3DS and are preinstalled on North American Wii U consoles, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video applications. These streaming services are available independently from Nintendo Network services.

Additionally, some videos can either be downloaded to the system's memory through SpotPass. On the Nintendo 3DS, many of these videos are offered in autostereoscopic 3D; on the Wii U, only 2D high definition videos are available. The exact content available varies by region.

Discontinued services

SpotPass TV – ceased operations on June 20, 2012.

Eurosport – ceased operations on December 31, 2012.

Hulu app shut down in 2019 for the Wii U and 3DS.

Nintendo Unleashed

Nintendo Unleashed was a video gaming online magazine published by Future Publishing for Nintendo Network. It is produced by the team behind the Official Nintendo Magazine and features video reviews and previews and footage of upcoming and recently released Nintendo games. Episodes are released monthly on the Nintendo eShop, Nintendo Channel and YouTube where users can watch all the latest news, reviews and previews of Wii, Wii U, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Virtual Console games. The show's original name and format was called Nintendo TV. The show ended sometime in 2014 before the Official Nintendo Magazine ceased publication.

Nintendo Show 3D

Nintendo Show 3D was a video gaming online show produced by Nintendo and hosted by Jessie Cantrell. It featured video previews and footage of upcoming and recently released Nintendo 3DS retail and downloadable games. Episodes were released every two weeks on the Nintendo eShop free of charge. This series was exclusive to North American Nintendo 3DS consoles. Nintendo Show 3D released its last episode on March 28, 2013, two years after the North American release of the original Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo eShop News

Japan exclusive news video conferences hosted by Satoru Iwata.

Short films

The Nintendo eShop offers a wide range of downloadable video content for the Nintendo 3DS. These videos are mostly offered in 3D and are downloaded to the system's storage. To produce and distribute these short films, Nintendo partnered with companies such as Breakthru Films, Black Box Productions, Atlantic Productions, Ka-Ching Cartoons and DreamWorks Animation.

From Wikipedia’s article on Nintendo eShop, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Controversies and legal

Litigation

The Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) filed suit against Nintendo in February 2018, asserting that the eShop's policy on pre-order refunds violated European consumer law. As the NCC outlined, while European law requires digital storefronts to provide refunds on pre-orders, Nintendo bypassed this for the Switch eShop by having the user click an acknowledgement checkbox that waived their rights to refunds. NCC argued this violated the EU's Consumer Rights Directive 2011 as all pre-orders must be able to be refunded. Nintendo cited that under the directive that offering the checkbox to waive this right was valid. The German Federation of Consumer Organisation (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e. V., or VBEV) took the lead on the lawsuit by December 2018 as Nintendo's European headquarters were located in Großostheim.

The Regional Court of Frankfurt ruled in December 2019 for Nintendo, but both the NCC and VBEV appealed the decision. During the appeal, in September 2020 Nintendo changed its pre-order policy to allow refunds for games but only a week before the game is scheduled for release. Despite this change, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt reversed the lower court's decision and ruled against Nintendo in December 2021, stating that its policy still violated the EU consumer's directive, as "the prerequisites for the right of revocation were not met, as the download made available after the pre-order did not yet contain any usable game."