Nearly a year after the Nintendo Switch 2 launched, the console still doesn’t offer any streaming apps. While the console supports TV docking, you cannot use it to stream YouTube videos or watch movies and TV shows on Netflix, Prime, or Hulu.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launched with all of these on day one, but the Switch 2 remains a streaming desert. It’s hard to say whether Nintendo or the streaming apps are at fault for this.
Google promised at launch that YouTube support is “coming soon,” but has since gone quiet. So players decided to take matters into their own hands.
So how did YouTube end up on the Switch 2?
A Reddit user on r/NintendoSwitch2 stumbled onto something interesting. The free-to-play battle royale game Super Animal Royale has a news feed on its title screen. Tapping an embedded video clip and selecting “Watch on YouTube” triggered a hidden browser on the console. Suddenly, Switch 2 owners could browse and play YouTube videos, albeit with several restrictions.
Videos were locked to 360p, played only in full-screen mode, thumbnails were glitchy, and there was no way to log into a YouTube account. But it worked, and for a console that has gone eleven months without a single streaming app, that was enough to get people excited.
Did Nintendo really patch this faster than it launched an official app?
As discovered by Notebookcheck, as soon as the workaround went viral, users trying the same trick got error code 2800-1230. Whether Nintendo pushed an update directly or leaned on Super Animal Royale’s developers is unclear, but the speed of the fix is hard to ignore.
Nintendo is known for heavily restricting its users and patching any customization loopholes users discover. So there’s a high chance the company did it this time, too. If only Nintendo were so swift in getting streaming partners on board, its user base would be happier.
With Nintendo raising the prices of Nintendo Switch 2, thanks to volatile RAM market conditions, the company should at least offer new features via software update, making the price increase more palatable, and adding streaming apps to its platform should be its first priority.