Switch 2 Storage Calculator: how many games fit on 256 GB?

It depends on the games, because Switch 2 sizes range from 6.8 GB (Pokémon Pokopia) to 90.4 GB (Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade) in the 18 we checked on nintendo.com. The 256 GB internal storage holds at most 238.4 GB in the units those pages use, so roughly 10 games the size of Mario Kart World (22.2 GB) or 3 the size of Cyberpunk 2077 (60.6 GB), before the space Nintendo reserves for the system.

Nintendo sells the Switch 2 with 256 GB and says a portion is reserved for the system, but it does not publish how much. Storage is sold in decimal gigabytes, while game sizes on nintendo.com are binary, so even an empty 256 GB is only 238.4 of those GB, a 6.9% difference that has nothing to do with the reserve. For the exact figure, read the free space in System Settings > Data Management and type it into the calculator.

Only if you want more space. Nintendo says Switch 2 is only compatible with microSD Express cards, up to 2 TB, for games and other data. An ordinary microSD card from a Switch 1 will not save or load digital games on Switch 2; Nintendo says you can only use it to copy Switch screenshots and videos.

Nintendo’s US store page lists The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2 at 27 GB, marked “estimated” because the game is not out until 5 November 2026. That is more than Mario Kart World (22.2 GB). A pre-order downloads the full game ahead of launch, so the space is needed before release day, not on it.

Of the 18 Switch 2 games we checked on nintendo.com on 3 October 2026, the largest is Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade at 90.4 GB, which is more than a third of the internal storage on its own. Third-party ports are the big ones: Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077 are both above 60 GB, while most Nintendo-made games are under 30 GB.

No. Nintendo’s data management FAQ says save data is stored in the console’s System Memory and cannot be saved or copied to a microSD Express card. Downloaded games, updates, DLC, screenshots and videos can go on the card. Deleting a downloaded game does not delete its save, so you can archive a game to make room and pick up where you left off after downloading it again.

Because the card is measured in decimal gigabytes and the console counts in binary ones. Samsung’s datasheet for its Switch 2 card gives a user capacity of 256,288,751,616 bytes and defines 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes. Divided by 1,073,741,824 bytes, the size of the “GB” on nintendo.com, that is 238.7 GB. Nothing is missing; it is the same number of bytes in a bigger unit.

Add up the games you plan to keep installed and subtract the internal space. All 18 games in our list come to 567.9 GB, which fits with a 512 GB card added to the internal storage. Our default four-game library (Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Ocarina of Time, Cyberpunk 2077) leaves 119.7 GB of the internal upper bound free, so plenty of players will not need a card at first.