If you want to play the best Switch games, there’s no alternative than Nintendo’s hybrid console and its successor, the Switch 2. Playing physical games is easy since all you need to do is pop them in and play. Unlike the best PS5 games and best Xbox Series X games, the almost all physical Switch games don’t require an additional download. Games you buy digitally or play through Nintendo Switch Online, on the other hand, do require a lengthy download. It might seem like you’re stuck with no way to speed things up, but there are a few ways you can power-up your download speeds.
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Increase your maximum transmission unit
This sounds complicated and technical, but is very simple to do and can be the biggest upgrade to download speeds on your Switch. By tweaking one value in the Switch’s settings, you can cut multiple minutes off of giant downloads.
Step 1: Go to System Settings -> Internet – >Internet Settings.
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Step 2: Select your network and select Change Settings.
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Step 3: Scroll down until you see MTU. It should be set at 1,400 by default, but we want to change it to 1,500.
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Clear your network
Along with the above method, you can also do a few things to make your network more friendly to downloading Switch games. Unlike speeding up PlayStation downloads, the Switch has no Ethernet port and relies on Wi-Fi, so that isn’t an option. Instead, you can at least bring your Switch close to your router so there is less interference with the signal.
Additionally, see if you can turn off or disable any other phones, consoles, or computers sharing the same network as the Switch. Each additional device on your network limits how much speed the others can use, so if your Switch is the only thing connected then it will get as much speed as possible.
