Nine years. That's how long Switch owners have been putting up with an eShop that felt like it was loading over dial-up. Nintendo has finally done something about it.
Firmware version 22.5.0, released on Monday, ships with a note that "the Nintendo eShop layout has been redesigned" for the original Switch. Users are already reporting a noticeably faster experience, and the reason why makes a lot of sense once you understand what changed under the hood.
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From browser to native app
Here's the thing: the Switch eShop was never really an app. For the console's entire lifespan, it functioned as a self-contained web browser loading Nintendo's storefront pages. That's why browsing felt sluggish, and why the catalog getting larger over the years only made things worse. More pages to load, same slow engine doing the work.
Firmware 22.5.0 appears to replace that browser entirely with a native application, similar to how the Switch 2 eShop has worked since launch. The content is still pulled from Nintendo's servers, but the interface itself now runs locally on the hardware. The result is a much snappier experience that players have been asking for since 2017.
The clearest proof of this architectural change? The eShop now responds to the system's theme settings. If your Switch is set to Basic Dark, the eShop will match it with a proper dark mode. A web-based storefront simply couldn't do that. System-level theme integration only works when the app is actually part of the system.
PIN protection for purchases
The move to a native app also unlocks a security feature that was previously impossible to implement: PIN codes for eShop access and saved payment methods. Players can now require a PIN before anyone opens the store or completes a purchase using stored card details.
For households with kids, this is a meaningful addition. The old browser-based setup had no way to tie into the Switch's parental controls at that level, so purchases were one accidental button press away from going through. That gap is now closed.
What Switch 2 owners get from 22.5.0
The Switch 2 also received firmware 22.5.0 on Monday, though its update is considerably lighter. Since the Switch 2 already launched with a native eShop app, there was no storefront overhaul to push through. Its patch notes cover the addition of Dutch and Russian language support in the Text to Speech and Speech to Text During GameChat accessibility settings.
That's it. Which tells you everything about how different the two situations were: the Switch 2 was already where the original Switch just arrived.
A long time coming
The complaints about Switch eShop performance are almost as old as the console itself. As Nintendo added thousands of games to the catalog over the years, search and browsing times stretched out further. The problem wasn't unique to any one hardware revision either: Switch Lite and OLED owners dealt with the same sluggish storefront as everyone else.
What's worth noting is the timing. The Switch 2 has been out for weeks and is selling at a pace that's outrunning the original Switch's early trajectory. Bringing the original console's eShop up to a comparable standard keeps the older hardware feeling supported rather than abandoned, which matters for the tens of millions of players who haven't upgraded yet.
If you're picking up new titles on the original Switch, games like Balatro have arrived with notable upgrades on Switch 2. Check out the Balatro Nintendo Switch 2 guide to see what's new in that version, or browse our full gaming guides for everything else releasing across both platforms right now.
