The Nintendo Switch Online app wasn’t met with a particularly positive reaction, but, perhaps the more damning verdict is how few people have downloaded it worldwide.
It was designed to “help enhance your online gameplay experience” on the portable home console, currently letting players track their Splatoon 2 stats, invite friends to play with them, and is required to use voice chat while they are playing.
Sensor Tower reports that their Store Intelligence tool estimates that the app “has been installed approximately 780,000 times worldwide.”
They calculate that to represent roughly 17 percent of those that own a Nintendo Switch, with 400,000 installs on iOS devices from the App Store and 380,000 on Android through Google Play.
At E3 2017, it was announced that the paid Nintendo Switch Online service had been delayed into 2018, to allow Nintendo more time to have everything in place.
“As Nintendo looks at the overall online digital experience there’s a recognition that there’s a lot of work to be world class,” Fils-Aime had explained.
“And we pride ourselves… we believe our IP is world class. We believe that when we create a piece of hardware it’s world class. We need to get our digital environment world class. And that’s what we’re working hard to do.”
Giving the fact that not every Nintendo Switch user has a Android/iOS smartphone AND Splatoon 2. I think 17% (for a completly optionnal app) in less than 2 weeks is not to be considered “largely ignored”.
But the headline wouldn’t be the same, right?
This is a ridiculous headline. Why is it news? The app only works with Splatoon 2 right now, which hasn’t sold nearly 700,000 and the app was downloaded over that. No one else has any need for it yet. I don’t own Splatoon and that’s why I’d didn’t download the app. Common sense please!
I wasn’t even able to download it, as it wouldn’t say it was available for my Galaxy S5 for some reason.