If you’ve been eyeing up Nintendo’s flagship console, you may be wondering if the Nintendo Switch comes with games. After all, as impressive as the hardware is, you’re not buying it just so it can sit on your shelf as a fancy ornament. Unboxing a brand-new console and turning it on only to find there’s nothing to play isn’t ideal, either.

Thankfully, there are more than a few standout games to try. The best Nintendo Switch games are a varied bunch, spanning bustling adventures, frenetic fighters and acclaimed platformers. They star plenty of the usual Nintendo mascots, too, and the best Mario games for Switch are well worth picking up.

But does Nintendo Switch come with games out of the box? Well, the quick answer is a simple one: sort of.

The Nintendo Switch – and its other variants, the Nintendo Switch OLED and Nintendo Switch Lite – don’t come with any accompanying games by default. If you just purchase the console, that’s all you get, and you’ll have to shell out for games to play on it.

However, retailers sell various Nintendo Switch bundles that usually package the console alongside a game or two. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Splatoon 3 and other great titles can be bought with the console. Buying these bundles is usually an affordable way of picking up the console and grabbing a great game at a discount – especially handy if you have your eyes set on a game and know for certain you want to play it.

Occasionally, Nintendo also releases time-limited bundles around major games or events. As part of Mario Day 2023, for example, it launched a Nintendo Switch package that included your choice of one of three Mario games. It also released a special bundle to coincide with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and we expect it’ll do something similar when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears.

Do pay attention to exactly what’s in the bundles, though. Some contain the standard Nintendo Switch, others the improved (but pricier) Nintendo Switch OLED, and occasionally the Nintendo Switch Lite.

It’s worth noting that the Nintendo Switch eShop is full of free demos and even free-to-play titles that you can download if you haven’t picked up any software. Games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Tetris 99 can all be downloaded for free, although you will need a Nintendo Switch Online membership.

Read our breakdown of the Nintendo Switch vs Nintendo Switch OLED if you’re still weighing up which console is right for you, and have a peek at our guide to the Nintendo Switch vs Nintendo Switch Lite to see if the handheld-only hardware would fit your needs.