Over 50% Of Nintendo Switch Online Subscribers Have Purchased The Annual Plan

It’s the smartest choice, specially considering family plans.

I'll subscribe when there's something worth subscribing to. 30+ year old NES games just aren't gonna cut it.

I won't be buying the Switch Online service until there's a reason to pay for it - NES games don't impress me and I can live without Splatoon.

I have registered the $ 20 / year.

Family planned

I've barely used it since subscribing. Spent maybe 3 hours on the NES games, and maybe had one, 1-hour session on Splatoon 2, and that's it so far.

Yep, it's the most financially sound option of the 3. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Now there'd better not be day one disruptions in Smash.

20€ or even ~5€ shared with 7 other guys is dirt cheap for online play and some sweet NES gems...
I'm all in since day one and I'm not going anywhere with my family plan subscription until this console gets a successor.

Won’t be getting it until Smash. Don’t play online that often.

I haven't done the annual plan yet because I'm not convinced I'm going to keep it for ever.

It's still pretty cheap all considered.

I got the annual plan out of hope that in the future, that revenue may actually make paying worthwhile.

Makes sense.

I was hoping they’d disclose the total subscription numbers but maybe that’s for another day.

I'm waiting for snes games.

18 pound a year is nothing, especially when Smash is just about to come out and Metroid is getting added to the NES games! 😉👌

I have the annual plan. Can’t complain. I’m currently in a vita mood so I don’t use my switch that often but once smash launches I’ll be all over the switch again.

Still no numbers on how many have subscribed from the overall userbase. Hopefully means that it's tanking as it deserves to.

I did the annual and it is great love the nes

Haven’t bothered doing anything yet. I just hardly ever go online. If I get smash I’ll get the online if not then meh.

I got the Annual Pass, but i don't know why, I haven't actually played any online games on the switch as yet.

Ah yeah, the NES games thats why, but I haven't played on them yet either as my backlog of normal games is massive.
Why did I sign up for online???

I got the family plan as we have two consoles. The service is pretty underwhelming and could either to with access to a game from previous each gen per month or some solid indie games thrown in. Maybe sort out party's for friends too.

I'm still waiting for those discounts.

There is no reason to pick anything else really. It's by far the best value of all the options. I know not everyone's money situation is the same, but for me, 20 bucks a year is a non-issue.

I only have a handful of friends who own a Switch, so when most if them decided not to bother paying for the online service, I spent the extra $15 for a family plan to ensure that I still have someone to play Splatoon/Mariokart with. Come Christmas time when Smash is out, I'm sure the situation will be different

Not buying it until I have a reason.

I bought it because there are plenty of reasons to.

Though a family plan would make sense for myself and my two sons, who live in their own homes now, none of us has even brought up the subject. We don't play enough and there's really no compelling reason at this point to subscribe.

As others have said, Nintendo seems committed to making only the most ancient NES titles the core of their software offerings, which just doesn't appeal to me anymore. If they started putting GameCube and AGB titles out there, my kids would probably be interested in revisiting the games of their childhood at the very least.

It's just that Nintendo's efforts in online gaming just, well, honestly suck. Hard.

Even if it was free, I wouldn’t use what it has to offer. NES games are fun for about 2 minutes.

@Medic_alert
I'm curious. I love Dr. Mario, too, but has that time spent on the game been versus online opponents or primarily playing solo matches? In other words, would it have been cheaper to pay $4 for Dr. Mario alone and forego the online plan, or have you gotten enough other value out of it that Dr. Mario is merely a perk and not the core benefit you've enjoyed so far?

Seeing as the annual plan averages out to $1.66 a month, why would anyone choose to pay three dollars every month instead?

I would rather buy a game for that money.

I am with the family plan

I'm in a family plan, costed me less than a good meal ( and same as 2 cheap ones) for the whole year. It's also way less than what I pay for Spotify in a year.

Also, it was paying for online or not playing the games that I already own (that's the biggest selling point people, I know, it's not pretty), like Splatoon and Monster Hunter.

I took the family plan and shared with two friends. A little bit cheaper.

I took the plunge with the year pass even though I don’t play online games that much it was more about the retro games which aren’t that great tbh but I did it on the hope that I might get perks along the way ! Whilst it’s not much it was quite fun getting the different version of Zelda

@marnelljm 2nd console play ?

I’m doing it just for the retro games, everything else is lagniappe. 20$ a year is cheap.

I forgot to cancel after the 7 day trial so they got $4 out of me.

I went for three months. Thought I'd see how it went until Smash. Two of my sons have profiles on my Switch. They're using their own profiles for games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey and we're all using mine for Mario Tennis Aces and Splatoon 2.

I did the trial. Stopped.

I'm up for it in the long run but it's got nothing much I want right now. GBA games will get me.

"more than 50%"

Is it 51% or 99% or somewhere in between?

Is there even an option for the Family Plan for less than a year? I haven't even tried my free trial yet, my sons have been so busy with homework they hardly even game any more and I've been playing on the PS4. That will change at Christmas w/ SSBU, Pokemon and XC2, but that's still 2 months away. But we will get the Family Plan for SSBU, maybe there will be a BF sale, that's when I buy my PS+ every year.

I'm surprised it's not more like 90%. The 1-month and 3-month options are so punitively expensive.

I covered everyone and strangers. Family plan

Got the year ons, its good to have

dont play online and nes libary is crap. online backups was enough for me to buy

My hubby & I got the Family Plan & sold some of our extra slots to friends, making the service cheaper for all involved!!

@Medic_alert
No, I wasn't trying to infer you were being cheated. I was just wondering how much value the subscription is giving you versus what a standalone, online-connected game would.

My point is that Nintendo is giving users very little value for their money. Their online service is cheap, yes, but it's not really delivering anything innovative or terribly useful. People buy it because, "Why not?"

I think Nintendo could and should do a lot better. We've trusted them to innovate repeatedly when it comes to consoles, but when it comes to online they're unfocused and at least ten years behind the times.

And for those of us that do love classic titles, it's getting really old after decades of Nintendo milking the NES library until it's a shriveled old teat. There is an incredibly enormous back-catalog of titles from systems more recent than the SNES that many of us would dearly love to revisit and in which Nintendo seems to have absolutely no interest.

Not subscribed yet. Might do it when Animal Crossing is released.

This isn't surprising but what would be more interesting is what percentage of Switch owners are subscribed.

The problem isn't that the online subscription is bad, its not, it costs £18. It's hardly a crippling cost.

The issue is that it just isn't enough, the lack of voice chat, the unreliable connectivity, the lack of decent classic games... The only saving grace is the cloud saves and even that comes with setbacks for Splatoon players.

The service just isn't enough for what i want... I'd be willing to pay more for more of a service... I pay the £18 grudgingly, knowing even though the price matches the bottom of the barrel service, it just isn't enough for what i want from an online service.

Edit: 100% the reason why we haven't had sub numbers is because it hasn't been great, id be willing to bet that maybe 6 or 7m people have subbed, also many not for the whole year too, i would guess that this is a total shock to Nintendo as the NES classic sold so well and had such a huge demand, they probably had no idea this would struggle.

I paid the $25 for it. I only very occasionnaly play online (rarely), but cloud saves and NES games (although selection is quite sub-par so far) seemed a relatively good deal to me.

Can Nintendo do better? Of course it can. And I hope it will. But while I would never had subscribed for a price in line with what others are charging ($70), $25 is "fair" for a year. The price paid reflects, in a sense, the fact that its offering isn't on par with competitors. No voice chat, for instance, or voice chat relying on a phone app, which is a convoluted and ridiculous setup.

With all that in mind, $25 isn't so bad for a yearly subscription.

Although I hope Nintendo will improve the service, add games to its subscription library (and not just NES ones), and include standard integrated voicechat eventually.

I feel a bit underwhelmed so far by this online service. I was necessary to get the family subscription for my child to play Splatoon 2. The NES games are not really much of a draw and I have only briefly dabbled with them.
It is a cheap service, but that is reflected in the current meagre offering. I hope it develops in a more interesting direction!

I got the annual plan, which - as mentioned elsewhere, maybe even in the links provided below (sorry for any wiki walk) - was mostly out of repaying a debt I felt like I had.

Should I be asked why I did it, outside of the aforementioned excuse, I still find myself unable to properly answer the question. The NES should be an incentive, but the lack of an actual Virtual Console service is playing it up like the selling point it is not, and unless more retro consoles are added to the online service ASAP, I see no way out of this unfortunate statement - for my portable retro fix, I've more than supported the 3DS' Virtual Console as my backlog can attest. Sure, if more official hacks like the Zelda one are on the way (maybe a level select-enabled Super Mario Bros. 3, pretty please), it would be a step in the right direction, but as it stands, it seems like I've "Secret Santa'd" a few NES games for my girlfriend and my friend, and that's kind of about it.
Regardless of the usual sugar-coating we do here, the initial hiccups proved to be too evident to be deniable in the long run.
Besides, as @Grumblevolcano just pointed out, we're avoiding an answer to another question we don't want to hear about, mostly because the percentage of Switch owners who also subscribed to Switch online would be much less flattering than what we're discussing here.

The silver lining is that apparently Nintendo's upcoming focus on what boils down to customer-pleasing might point towards more focus on us actually getting what we've paid for (that is, unless Nintendo gets sidetracked by a painfully easy challenge to win).
Besides, as much as we don't know jack about what Pokémon has to offer (mainly because in the end it most likely won't do its part in justifying the Switch Online, thanks to Let's Go being dead-set on dumbing down everything that made Pokémon great in the first place - online included), there's the fact Smash Ultimate is going to be a juggernaut among the reasons to own an Online subscription - especially given that 1) online improvement in Smash is always good - and needed - and 2) unlike fellow "made for online" game Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Smash actually has a healthy competitive scene that would appreciate more lag-less online play. So there's that at least.

@0muros don't stand while you wait or you'll get tired lol

Did not subscribe, will not subscribe!

Did not subscribe as I don't like to play online games. Will subscribe if they give us discounts on digital content.

Have no plans to now....Maybe November 2019.

I haven’t subbed yet because I haven’t really played online much. I was playing Spla2n a lot when it first released and that’s basically been my online presence.

All this will change when smash comes out. Who is that guy dominating with pichu? Yeah that will be me with my annual sub. 😁

@Medic_alert I know the feeling.

Like a lot of people I subscribed and use it now and again. I have to so I can play the online games I own. But I hope they start to flesh out the service soon, it’s the bare minimum.

I still haven't signed up for it. The earliest I am going to get it is when smash is released but that is when I look up to see if the net code for the online is good. If I don't get it when smash is released then I will most likely get it when they add alot more retro games.

I have the annual plan. What freebies arrive between now and the end of my subscription will determine if I renew. The NES games are pretty week in my opinion.

I'll probably get a family plan eventually, but we've got no need for online services ATM. If I wanted to play a NES game, I'd play an NES game on our NES.

I hate the idea of paying €20 for ONLY cloud saves. I have no interest in online gaming or NES games for the next 2 years until they decide to 'grace' us with SNES games. Pass until GameCube games come to the service.

Step your p***y up Ninty.

Haven't signed up as I'm a bit of an einzelgänger game-wise and have plenty of other options to play NES games.

Have the annual plan. I plan on upgrading to the family plan so I can play Animal Crossing with my Mom and my brother.

@marnelljm
amen

Why would I pay for something that was free and hasn't gotten any better?

Got the annual pretty early on.

My only complaint is the need to check in. I tend to play offline, undocked, so it comes up every week, then I have to remember to dock so I can play NES games again. I paid for a year. Can't I just check in after a year?

At this point, I would be paying $20/year to play MK8 online... I will probably do it at some point, but have not yet.

Well after all my banging on about not subscribing, guess who subscribed. In my defense I was a touch drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Played about a total of 20 minutes NES games but trying to get my money's worth on Mario Kart.

Not subscribed yet as I haven’t anything in my library of games that I’m desperate to have online other than splatoon 2 but I’m not subbing for one game. Think if it had SNES on it as well I would take the plunge but nothing yet I’m desperate for.

Not signed up yet, I rarely play online and have too much of a backlog to play NES right now.
Now if Nintendo would only release some concrete plans for future services and/or other platforms then I am sure they would shift a lot more consoles to those who are on the fence about what to get for Xmas.

Even though I still think NSO is a bit underwhelming, $20/yr is a super generous and easy price to pay (at least for me), so I didn't mind paying it. I think all people want to see is a visible return on investment and not a song and dance, and so far I think Nintendo's been 50/50 on it. Is online play better? I guess, I haven't really noticed honestly. Are the NES classics a good selling point? To nostalgic casual gamers that haven't played them for the umpteeth time, yes-- For the hardcore, it's 'kay, it's just that we need more NES and some SNES/Genesis/N64/etc./etc. asap and at a quicker drip. The fact they are online playable with friends is cool, (as long as you have friends to play with... thank goodness for websites aimed at "making friends" in case it's difficult). A few more perks would be nice too, contests, maybe achievements, more surprise/special games out of nowhere. Looking forward very much to it improving in 2019.

Family Plan. It's $5 a YEAR for 8 people. Amazing deal. I have a few left, waiting for peeps to make use of them.

@ViewtifulJotun Splatoon 2 alone, is worth it. Switch's best game.

@Balta666 I don't think it will be that long.

Honestly the NES games doesn't do anything for me since I have the classic, I mainly got it for Splatoon and the cloud saves for peace of mind and save scumming with Smash in mind as well. I do hope the service gets better over time offering more than NES games and discounts since mynintendo only has wii u and 3ds discounts but I'm glad they finally started taking online seriously since Nintendo is seriously behind in that regard.

Still waiting on my reason to subscribe right now still not enough there.

@thesilverbrick (in ref to your $3 comment) Because I think at some point, this is all going to be a stacking thing with other VC's added. $5 more SNES, $5 for GB, $5 for ADV, $10 for GC in a year or something...so that $3 would look different for 1 month of service. Otherwise...if they're trying to keep it ridic cheap for little kids...little kids don't have cards. For adults, if you can't afford $20, you probably aren't going to spend $3.

Online play sucks and is still p2p with no dedicated servers; free games don't factor as positive or a neg for me ('cept Wario's Woods) they're just "there"; voice chat is absurd; biggest subscriber "perk" are the $60 NES controllers THAT ONLY work with the NES Online games; cool it's only $20 bucks, but it just isn't good....but of course I bought it for a year and ordered those controllers (only good dpad controller for Switch is a Dualshock synched with a 8bitdo or the handheld mode HORI joycon). So I am part of the problem.

Family plan for the win. Now I can justify purchasing an additional Switch for the home thanks to cloud saves.

Still haven't bothered to sign up or even try the one-week free trial.

@Razer "The issue is that it just isn't enough, the lack of voice chat, the unreliable connectivity, the lack of decent classic games... The only saving grace is the cloud saves and even that comes with setbacks for Splatoon players.

The service just isn't enough for what i want... I'd be willing to pay more for more of a service..."

Isn't this the exact same thing I was saying just before the service was launched?

Two friends and I got the family plan from the start. My best friend was mostly after online since she's addicted to Splatoon 2 whereas I've used it more for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online races. I'm the one who uses the NES games the most and hope they eventually move on to other consoles.

Does have Special Offer for FREE.

@0muros why not. They have been super clear for I would say over a year now that it will be "a growing library of NES games".
They were only mentioning NES and SNES at launch when they were talking about only having a few games available for the month only.
I do believe that anyone expecting more than the NES is just making a fool of themselves

Annual family plan here. We haven't used it all that much yet, but it cost us less than ONE pizza dinner. Not even worth deliberating over.

I'd be curious to know what percentage of switch systems overall have been subscribed to the online service.

@Balta666 I WANT TO BELIEVE. That's the argue. An exemple: Person who believe InGod make fools of themselves according to your point? Yes I'll continue to believe because eshop on Wii u and 3ds was better than the Switch one. Virtual console was possible before with less technologies I don't see why snes, n64, GameCube, Wii and Wii u games will not appear on Switch.

I look forward to see in the futur who between you and me is a fool.

I got the family plan for my household and have been happy with it. I don't understand all these people who think the main thing they are paying for is the NES games. I am paying to play online, those are just a bonus to sweeten the deal.

12 month family plan, and every slot is used already
Everyone is enjoying it.

Why pay $20 annually when you can get the family plan and pay $35 for a bunch of people?

@AlternateButtons
If it needs work then it obviously isn't fine.

Haven't bought a sub, for them to deserve my money they need to supply a product or service, NSO is neither.

I will maybe subscribe if Nintendo makes all games have a normal text and voice chat service, plus if they also have SNES games to stream that would also change my mind.

What a crock of $***! 50% of what? Nintendo forever with smoke and mirrors tactics. Why don't they tell us something useful like how many people have bought a plan?

@electrolite77 See, you've misread it. It says that 50% of the subscribers have purchased the annual plan, as opposed to all the other plans. Not that 50% of the userbase have purchased Nintendo Switch Online. That figure could be anything, I'm betting it's low, otherwise Nintendo would be bragging. I hate when companies don't give full facts and figures.

@0muros regarding the god thing yes I do but that is not what we're discussing here hehe.
Well virtual console is another thing but as part of a 20$/year I am very confident that they won't give you those games.
Finally am not saying that I don't want them just that is is unlikely they will provide them.
Lastly completely disagree with the eshop as I absolutely hate the 3ds one and love the switch one

The only part of the service that interests me is the classic games but I'd rather buy them a la carte (or allow us to transfer our purchased vc) to the system rather than pay for a slow drip of rentals. With the current offerings I won't be getting my money's worth compared to a customized library. Honestly why did they start from scratch again? Easily could've had all games that were on all past vc iterations on the switch day one!

Did not get the service and prolly never will, unless the deals you get with NSO will be great but I doubt it.

Switch is my local multiplayer machine anyway for good online I’ll go to my pc or Xbox.

@GameOtaku "or allow us to transfer our purchased vc"

One of the best things about playing on xbox one right now is that randomly there will be a BC update and every so often you get a bunch of extra games show up in your library. The other week I had the entire Crysis Trilogy show up and it's great. Before that I got the the last of the AC games.

@TheGhostWhoWalks It's unusual that they aren't considering that they showed the Wii U's sale numbers.

With this kind of service, the monthly plans often exist just to make the annual plan look like a better deal. If you own the console and play online games then this is a pretty important function. No way you're gonna just go month-by-month.

I purchased the free trial and then quit. It's lame as hell and i don't really play anything online. The few that i do are free to play so at this point it is completely pointless. They should introduce further game discounts to subscribers as they do on PSN. it needs much more for me to consider it. Poorly emulated NES games is not enough.

@LegendOfPokemon

Same, I play mostly single player or local multiplayer stuff on my switch. But when smash Bros releases then I will definitely be jumping online.

I didn't purchase a subscription because let's face it, why would I pay money for nothing?