2023 was an incredibly fruitful year for gamers, and Switch enjoyed an excellent seventh year on store shelves.

Industry-wide layoffs in the latter half of the year made for a sobering counterpoint to the glut of great games, and at times the pandemic-related backlog of projects which finally flushed through made it difficult to keep tabs on everything — it was a fantastic year for anyone just playing video games.

Best Switch Games Of 2023
Image: Nintendo Life

While the future is uncertain in many respects, it's impossible to deny the quality and quantity of software that launched across all platforms in 2023, as our (and we're sure your) backlogs can attest. Here at Nintendo Life, once again we compiled your selections of the best games of the year — as governed by each game's User Rating in our games database — into a dynamic community-ranked Top 50 Switch Games of the Year: 2023 Edition.

It started out quiet, with little of note on Nintendo's announced first-party release list beyond January's Fire Emblem Engage and the tentpole TOTK, but the calendar soon fleshed out with the long-awaited Advance Wars 1+2, the excellent Pikmin 4, and the delightful Super Mario Bros. Wonder — the first brand-new 2D Mario for over a decade. Add some surprise ports (Quake II, Vampire Survivors), third-party classics (Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Persona 5 Tactica), and indie gems (Sea of Stars, Blasphemous 2), and 2023 was bursting at the seams with incredible Switch games.

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But how do they stack up against each other? We asked Nintendo Life readers to rate the games this year, and the list below is the result. Please note: The order may change, even after publication, subject to those fluctuating User Ratings. This means that it's not too late to rate your collection and influence the list, even as you're reading this now. Just click on the star icon and score the game from 1-10.

Can't see your favourite? Use the search bar below to find what you're looking for and rate the game(s) accordingly. Note. To become eligible, a game needs to have been rated by a minimum of 30 users.

Looking for Team Nintendo Life's personal picks? Check them out in our Staff Awards round-up below. Otherwise, let's take a look at the 50 best Switch games of 2023, as ranked by you...

50. PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (Switch eShop)

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is one of the most surprising games we've experienced in a good while. Its overarching narrative, while initially quite heavy on exposition, is wonderfully told, interweaving the lives of multiple protagonists and tasking the player with progressing their stories in meaningful ways. The puzzles are fantastic, the characters well realised, and the visuals top-notch, making those brief moments of horror and terror exceedingly effective.

It's an experience we fully recommend going into with as little information as possible, as this will prove to be an incredibly memorable experience; one that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Switch's best visual novels.

49. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (Switch eShop)

No matter how excellent its soundtrack or sense of momentum may be, there’s no shaking the sense that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is in a race against its own sense of nostalgia. The game rips, but more often than not it feels like that's because Jet Set Radio ran before it. That’s not to say it’s bad, but part of what makes Jet Set Radio so fun and unique is its raw originality. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk feels like a sequel in everything but name—for better and for worse. For every banger in its soundtrack, there’s a moment of jank or a feeling that this game hasn’t left 2000. Again, it’s still a great time, but it’s lacking that lightning-in-a-bottle feel that JSR had. That’s totally fine, and for people who missed out on it, this will feel much fresher.

48. Wargroove 2 (Switch eShop)

It isn’t often that war is a cosy affair, but Wargroove 2 manages to pull it off. We loved the game’s colourful, vibrant art and playful writing, and there is enough depth and variety in the main campaign to satisfy most tactics fans while the Conquest mode will offer an even greater challenge for those seeking it.

It doesn’t change much from the previous game; it just tightens up some of the existing mechanics and adds a couple of extra wrinkles to an already great formula. It's a brilliant sequel, and yet another worthy successor to Advance Wars.

47. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (Switch)

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a solid follow-up to the Danganronpa franchise that demonstrates a heap of ambition from its developers and mostly lives up to its predecessor's impressive reputation. But while the game delivers an excellent cast of characters and some truly intriguing mysteries to solve, it also stumbles in its methods, introducing mechanics and locations that outstay their welcome and become frustratingly repetitive. Still, for fans of Dangaronpa and those who enjoy a good gruesome crime or two, it's definitely worth checking out.

46. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails (Switch)

The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is a fun action RPG that takes elements of the wider series it's based on and crafts something unique. The minute-to-minute gameplay is also engaging, although with some minor platforming frustrations here and there.

While the story may be simplistic and not as politically engrossing as the mainline Trails games, the heartfelt cast of characters and side quests help flesh out its world.

45. Cassette Beasts (Switch eShop)

Cassette Beasts clearly draws quite a lot of inspiration from Pokémon, yet assuming it’s a total Pokéclone would be a mistake. While you explore an overworld teeming with cute and cool critters to battle and capture (or ‘record,’ in this case) and go up against an increasingly difficult array of opposing ‘trainers,' it’s a mishmash of mostly refreshing ideas outside of these basics. Some performance issues, wonky balance, and overly complex battle mechanics did little to affect how much we enjoyed ourselves. In fact, it’s one of the better monster-battling games not starring a little electric rodent that you can enjoy on your Nintendo Switch, with loads of monsters to record and remaster, many mysteries to uncover and characters to grow fond of, and literally thousands of beast fusions to see.

44. F-Zero 99 (Switch eShop)

Despite its relatively unchanged look compared to the 16-bit original, F-Zero 99 is unexpectedly refreshing. Though it may not be the return for the franchise that fans hoped for, it's a triumphant and welcome look back at Captain Falcon's first game with a clever twist. F-Zero is simply suited for the -99 style structure in ways that Tetris, Mario, and Pac-Man aren't; it was already an elimination-style battle royale, just a small one. Adding more players doesn't just feel perfect for F-Zero, it feels natural.

This isn't the definitive way to play F-Zero, but it is a brilliant take that supplements what worked so well in the original with thoughtful additions that make chasing victory utterly addictive.

43. Dredge (Switch eShop)

With its encyclopaedia of over 125 fish, Dredge’s bounty is as boundless as the sea, its action-RPG upgrade compulsion loop as deep. You get out what you put in with this one – during the first couple of hours, anyway. Once you achieve the sweet spot of an upgraded boat, manageable difficulty, and a story in full flow, it’s magical. The excellent presentation of a terrifying ocean really hits home. The need to stretch the limits of safety to reach your next catch leads to edge-of-the-seat moments, while the slapping rain and eerie creaks of the sound design hardly help you to peace out. Interspersed with confidence-building angling in the sunshine and the fun of slotting oddly shaped creatures into your tight inventory, there’s just enough encouragement to keep enjoying the horrors. A wonderful first effort from Black Salt, Dredge is absolutely the kind of game you mount over the mantelpiece rather than throw back into the water.

42. Batman Arkham Trilogy (Switch)

Rocksteady's phenomenal Arkham series needs no introduction at this stage — three of the finest superhero games you'll ever play with a top-notch cast and writing, and sublime gameplay that put you right into the bat-boots of the Dark Knight. Asylum is an all-timer, City still stands up as one of the best open-world games we've ever played and Knight, although slightly less successful, is still a strong final chapter. It's a shame that Knight is completely unplayable on Switch. Very little TLC has been shown to any of these games and better decisions weren't made when it became clear just how poorly one of the games here ran on Nintendo's console. If you only have a Switch and have never played the first two games, Batman: Arkham Trilogy is still a decent way to play those two titles, at least.

41. Mortal Kombat 1 (Switch)

Mortal Kombat 1 on Nintendo Switch manages to deliver this superb game's Story and Towers modes in a state that's playable, but only if you've got plenty of patience. There are frame rate issues, big resolution dips, input and timing problems related to performance drops, missing content, game-breaking bugs in Invasion mode, long loading times, and unresponsive menus. If you are a huge Mortal Kombat fan whose only option is Switch, you may be able to press through all of this. However, if you have any other option, we suggest you stay away from this one.