Your Nintendo Switch 'Year In Review 2025' Won't Arrive Until Next Month

I mean it makes sense, 2025 isn't done yet

Honestly...this makes sense. I don't consider it a "year in review" until the data through Dec 31st is compiled. That's been a minor annoyance of mine in previous years when I start and/or play games late in December.

This is a huge win imo, I was always disappointed that December didn't count.

I thought it came way too early last year. This is OK. We had our first divided year between Switch 1 and 2.

Yep, 100% back this. If your putting this out in early December you’re missing 1/12 of your play time (whatever service your following). I for one get a ton of playtime in over holiday time so well played, Nintendo.

It’s not like poor office workers are working on this over the holiday season; things all automated data pulled and slotted into a preformatted way for you.

This is a good thing. The year isn't over yet. I'm glad it will include December now.

Then my month is ruined. Nothing ever good happens at the end of December. Nothing!

Congratulations to Nintendo for making sense.

The big hitters for me this year were easily Xenoblade Chronicles X: DE and Cyberpunk 2077. I have 100+ hrs on both.

I managed to play Kunitsu-gami Path of the Goddess to the end credits at 20 hrs and Ys memoire: the oath in felghana at 10 hrs.

Mine for last year never worked for some reason, only ever got an error message.

Either way my most played Switch game was definitely Hundred Line.

I love looking at these reviews, early or not, but its a bit of a pet peeve of mine that stats typically don’t count December. That’s a pretty pivitol time for people to play games.

Last year’s stats had to withold the large amount of time I played Mario & Luigi: Brothership because I played the bulk of that in December. This month I’ve been spending alot of time with Kirby Air Riders; so much that it will probably be in my Top 3 most played games, but will still probably pale in comparison to my Mario Kart World hours and maybe even my Splatoon 3 hours. But, had the review not logged December, it would maybe hit the Top 5.

Definitely in the camp that agrees this move makes sense. Especially considering how much game time one can rack up across a holiday break.

Also, it gives us something to chat about once things slow down in January.

About time someone remembers December is still a month. Can you imagine my 2025 recap without the hours on "Metroid Prime 4: Beyond"? Well played, Nintendo.

This might be the most logical thing Nintendo has done.

Let’s hear everyone’s predictions for top3 played games. No checking your playtime or switch apps please.
I think mine will be
1.The Binding of Isaac: Repentance - easily put about 400 hrs into this beginning of the year bringing my total playtime to around 1300 hrs in 8 years.
2. Ball x Pit - hitting around the 155 hr mark.
3. Battle Brothers - 130 hrs I think.

Runners up - SMTVengence and Powerwash Simulator 2

I personally thinking I will have fewer gameplay hours with my Switch games during this year so far from my observation.
I started to play lesser with my Switch during this year.
But for Switch machine, I think Animal Crossing New Horizons is still my number 1 top gameplay hours despite it might be lower number than last year. The new update in January 2026 maybe will hyped me back.
I have more gameplay hours with my PS5 machine by The Sims 4 PS4 & Fantasy Life I PS5 during this year.
Well, PS5 is still my number 1 machine I have.

As always, Nintendo shows again why it is miles ahead of the competition. Year hasn't ended yet and who knows what huge changes it brings, so Nintendo was extremely smart not to release the recap yet, makes perfect sense especially since it's one of the biggest events for gamers!

I support this for the same reason I think it's very dumb that we do all the award season stuff now. It'd be hard enough to play everything even without getting cut off early. And now we have Indiana Jones showing up in the BAFTAs for this year.

I dunno I ain't busy in January, why not just wait a month.

I'm also OK with this. It makes perfect sense to have the year in review on January, and I didn't like how December wasn't counted in the last one.

Hopefully Nintendo starts the trend of an actual year in review. You can't hide your guilty pleasures in December then.

Finally a company who understands! I hate it that December is filled with this nonsense when the year isn't even over!

Shh, let's not rush December!

Is it just the Europe side or worldwide? I did notice after a system update last month that Nintendo requires you to accept some new data processing stuff to receive things like Year in Review and the ability to participate in betas.

I wonder if the will split my Switch 1 and Switch 2 time. Probably since I kept my account it will cover both consoles together.

@Neckcrane
I already know this all from checking my playtime in the past few months, so this is probably cheating, but I believe my top 5 games at the moment for 2025 are:
1) Tears of the Kingdom (120 hrs)
2) Super Mario Maker 2 (95 hrs)
3) Pokémon Scarlet (70 hrs I think)
4) Mario Kart World (60 hrs)
5) Donkey Kong Bananza (50 hrs)

I could see shifts upward for MKW or SMM2 after I finish Metroid Prime 4 though, we'll see.

Well so far I’m 96 hours on the PlayStation that released yesterday.

PS will be third again in 2025 as they were in 2024.
They used to be first in the first two years of PS5 release but it’s all gone quiet in PS world since then.

So top will be very close between Xbox and Nintendo as was 2024.

I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't found a way to monetize something like this.

This is wonderful! I always wondered why they only showed data that went to November 30th in past years. This is a welcome change 😀.

first year for switch one was better you had breath of the wild mario odyssey xenoblades 2 splatoon 2..

Good, I don't know why so many companies do it early in December. My 2025 is far from over, I'm still playing Kirby and Metroid.

I already know I didn’t play as much as last year, because there wasn’t as much to play. Add an extra month in and that won’t make it look so bad.

I'm actually stupidly happy about this. It always annoys me when my December stats aren't included.

I'm sure my top 2 played games this year were Silksong and Tears of the Kingdom. Not sure about the rest... Pipistrello and Mario Galaxy 2 will probably be up there. I mostly put a lot of small amounts of time into a bunch of games this year.

Good. It's silly that other places do it before the end of the year anyway. If they do it early, the stats will miss out on much of the December gaming.

I actually like this? I want to see the full year in review, not the eleven months every other company seems to do.

Cool, I'll certainly be interested in seeing it then! Though, I think I can already guess what my most played Switch/Switch 2 title was this year; looking at you, MKW! X3c

@Tyranexx

This is why the VGAs should also be held in January, if they were actually intended to be about praising excellence in games as a medium. As opposed to providing a pre-Christmas marketing push.

( Actually, in a perfect world, the VGAs and similar awards like the Oscars should only be presented at least five years later, so as to filter against recency bias and provide at least a mild test against lasting significance. . . )

After the new year, I will play something random like Welcome Tour as my first 2026 game. 🤓

@AllBLK

What makes you think they haven't? Its called "user activity metrics as tool for market research". A giant pile of data about what people actually play, is almost certainly far more valuable to Nintendo than any actual nickels or dimes acquired from trying to sell that data to the customers themselves.

Makes sense. The 2025 wrap up should come in 2026.

It's going to be Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition for me. 😂

A 2025 year in review in January makes the most sense. Now we can have the actual whole year. Not just every month but December.

@AllBLK never say never.

Spotify: "Here's your December 2024-to-November 2025 review" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Agree with everyone else. Why would we ignore things in December? I hate how other year wrap ups exclude the last month of the year.

It was stupid that they did it in December at all. It's part of the year so they need the whole month to get the proper usage stats.

Probably Star Wars Outlaws will be #1 for me, followed by either AC Shadows or DK Bananza. 2025 has been amazing for gaming on Nintendo. I can’t wait for the surprises of 2026.

Although I already know that I’ll spend quite some in RE Requiem early in the year.

I was wondering when it would show up. Alright, just wait another month. No problem.

I think my top 5 goes like this(at least on switch, overall was yokai watch 3)
1.Spark the electric jester 3 (50 hours)
2.Kirby Return to Dreamland DX (40 hours)
3.Smash Ultimate (35 hours)
4.Mario Kart World (25 hours)
5.Sonic x Shadow Generations (20 hours)

@metaphysician I pretty much agree; having VGA shows now doesn't give games that release in December much chance to shine unless they come out very early in the month. Or give most people enough time to properly experience some of them unless they spend almost every waking moment playing it. Which is definitely not most people.

Thanks for the article. Was thinking they canceled it, or i missed something.