Nintendo just got a wake-up call. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition launched on the Switch 2 fully on cartridge — no downloads, no key cards, no nonsense. And guess what? It instantly became the best-selling third-party game on the system, outselling heavy hitters like Hogwarts Legacy and Street Fighter 6.
In this video, I break down the numbers, the sales charts, and why being on a full cartridge made all the difference. Cyberpunk launched five years ago in 2020 and still sold strong. Hogwarts is only two years old, also sold over 30 million copies worldwide… and yet on the Switch 2, Cyberpunk crushed it. The difference? One came on a cartridge, the other was a “code in a box.”
We’ll look at: • Why CD Projekt Red’s decision to use a 64 GB cart was a huge win. • How other big-name key card launches underperformed. • What this means for Nintendo, third-party publishers, and game preservation. • Why I’m personally only buying full cartridge games on the Switch 2.
Nintendo players are speaking loud and clear: if you put the full game on the cart, we will buy it. Ignore that lesson, and the charts don’t lie.
