There’s nothing quite like an immersive open world game to provide a blissful escape from harsh reality. Open world games are incredibly fun, regardless of whether you’re playing an MMO, an RPG, or something else entirely.
The Switch is home to plenty of open world gems, from a variety of different franchises and universes. Whether you’re looking for something fantastical, dark and foreboding, or even light and comforting, there’ll be one for you.
Here are the 21 best open world games on Nintendo Switch to check out today.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
| Genre | Action, open world, RPG, adventure |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main story takes around 26 hours to finish and a full, 100% completionist run will take you over the 80 hour mark |
| Developer | Game Freak |
| Release date | 28th January 2022 |
| Co-op | Local wireless and online, 2 players supported |
While this is technically a semi-open world game, it would be a shame to leave it out of this list.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a truly refreshing addition to the Pokemon franchise, and offers an immersive, vibrant world to explore.
It’s a story-driven game with beautiful graphics and a surprisingly deep narrative. You play as a mysterious character that quite literally falls from the heavens, and you’ll need to complete missions, win battles, and learn more about the world around you.
PLA is a unique addition to the Pokemon franchise as it shows Pokemon in a truly wild habitat and state. In other games, they’re often shown as friendly, but in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, they’re wild and sometimes even scary.
This game has everything that a semi-open world game needs to thrive. The story is compelling, the characters are interesting, and there are heaps of side quests to get stuck into.
While it’s not a classic open world game, it’s still worth adding to your Switch library.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
| Genre | Open world, action-adventure, RPG, fantasy |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes close to 50 hours to beat and completing everything in the game will take you almost 200 hours |
| Developer | Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development |
| Release date | 3rd March 2017 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
One of the first open world games to ever hit the market was the original Legend of Zelda. The Legend of Zelda came out in 1986 and has had a huge impact on the gaming world since.
Over 30 years later, Breath of the Wild has resurrected everything great about the original game for modern audiences.
The game provides a massive playground for players to experiment in and explore. You can scale every mountain, every ingredient can be combined, every enemy can be challenged, and it’s all up to you.
There are various systems in place to encourage creativity, too.
For example, the weather system lets you use your metal weapons as lightning rods during thunderstorms. Or you could shoot a flaming arrow into dry grass, creating a strong updraft that allows you to escape upon the air using your paraglider.
Breath of the Wild is one of the best open world games on Nintendo Switch, without a shadow of a doubt. You could pick any direction to start walking in the overworld and always come across something incredible.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
| Genre | RPG, action-adventure, fighting, open world, fantasy |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | Main story takes around 52-53 hours to finish and a 100% completionist run will take you close to 180 hours |
| Developer | CD Projekt RED and CD Projekt |
| Release date | 18th May 2015 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
The Witcher 3 is an engrossing game. It’s full of dangerous monsters, interesting quests, and plenty of deep, intriguing lore.
Geralt of Rivia inhabits a dark, depressing world, and he’s just trying to help out the best he can… for a price.
When it comes to its story, characters, and dialogue, the Witcher 3 is hard to beat.
Every quest features rich narratives and impactful choices. For example, the iconic Bloody Baron questline has multiple endings which depend on the choices you made in previous quests.
Regarding combat, preparation and knowledge are just as important as reflexes and skill.
True to Witcher fashion, there’s an emphasis on exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses by concocting potions, applying specific oils on your swords, and using the right spells during the encounter. There’s also plenty of gear to pick up throughout the world.
Additionally, the Witcher 3 features a fully fleshed-out card game called Gwent that is sure to keep you exploring and hunting for rare cards to add into your deck.
The card game is so good it even spawned its own standalone game with an active competitive community, and a spin-off called Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, where you play as the warrior-queen Meve.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
| Genre | Action-adventure, RPG, fantasy, open world |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes around 26 hours to finish but doing a 100% completionist run will take you close to the 225 hour mark |
| Developer | Bethesda Game Studios |
| Release date | 11th November 2011 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
The reason why Skyrim has been ported to every console imaginable is its endless scope and impeccable world-building.
Once you’re introduced into the world, you are free to go wherever you want and be whoever you want to be. The fifth entry in the Elder Scrolls franchise is not only an enormous open world game; it is also an open book where you choose your own adventure.
The base story in Skyrim is fine and works well enough to throw you out into the world, but as many players can attest, it is easy to get side-tracked by the vast number of side quests, treasures, and guilds scattered throughout the world.
The deep layer of customization doesn’t end after the character selection screen. It’s always present in the core gameplay. You get to define your character by choosing your class, faction, guild, and a whole lot more.
Skyrim may have a simple combat system and a barebones main quest, but it more than makes up for it with the level of freedom it provides. It’s an essential to add to your library.
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
| Genre | Action-adventure, open world, RPG, fighting, fantasy |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes close to 34 hours to finish and a 100% completionist run will take you around 115 hours to complete |
| Developer | Capcom and QLOC |
| Release date | 23rd April 2013 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is an open world RPG with an addictive gameplay loop.
The game doesn’t hold your hand and expects you to put in a bit of work. For example, quest objectives aren’t marked, but rather the map only shows you the general area.
But the rewards are more than worth it because, by the end, your power level grows immensely, almost to Godlike levels.
The combat system is endlessly fun and allows for plenty of creative theory crafting.
There’s a great mechanic where you can grab onto monsters Shadow of Colossus style, repeatedly stabbing on a soft part on their body as they carry you across the sky.
The artificial intelligence of your companions is also incredibly dynamic.
Lastly, although the overworld is beautiful and fun to explore, the dungeons are the icing on the cake. Crawling from dungeon to dungeon is a rewarding and challenging experience, capping the adventure off with epic boss fights against chimeras.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
| Genre | Adventure, fantasy, open world, RPG |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | Main campaign takes just over 40 hours in this game and a full, 100% completionist run takes close to 156 hours to complete |
| Developer | Capcom and Marvelous |
| Release date | 9th July 2021 |
| Co-op | Local wireless and online, up to 4 players supported |
Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a perfect pick if you’re a Pokemon fan who wished the Pokemon games had deeper mechanics.
The game perfectly translates the core gameplay of the Monster Hunter franchise into a flawless turn-based experience.
Not only will you go hunting for giant monsters with your favorite weapons in this game, but you’ll also have your own companion monster to fight alongside you.
Your weapons and companions fall into three categories: power, technical, and speed. Battles play out with one class trumping another, rock-paper-scissors style.
However, the game introduces more complex mechanics like the Kinship gauge to keep battles fresh.
One of the game’s best features is the ability to ride your captured monster around the vast open world. Some areas are locked behind specific monster abilities like the ability to swim.
Immortals Fenyx Rising
| Genre | Adventure, open world, mythology, RPG, platformer |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main story takes just over 25 hours to finish and a completionist run takes close to 63 hours to complete |
| Developer | Ubisoft and Ubisoft Quebec |
| Release date | 3rd December 2020 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
Immortals Fenyx Rising is the lovechild of Breath of the Wild and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with a sprinkle of Greek mythology.
It takes the classic Ubisoft open world formula and distills it, offering a small but mighty island full of platforming puzzles and challenging battles.
Combat, platforming, and exploration go hand-in-hand here, as new weapons and items are dual purpose. For example, the Wings of Daedalus lets you glide across the map, yet it also enables you to take to the sky to pummel winged enemies like Harpies.
Combat becomes more complex as you progress further in the game. It’s incredibly fluid and dynamic.
With a fast-paced and rewarding progression system, what’s not to love about this game? Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of the best open world games for Nintendo Switch for fans of games like Breath of the Wild to check out.
Minecraft
| Genre | Sandbox, open world, survival, |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main story content takes around 89-90 hours to finish and doing a 100% completionist run will take you close to the 345 hour mark |
| Developer | Mojang Studios |
| Release date | 18th November 2011 |
| Co-op | Single system, local wireless, and online, up to 8 players depending on game mode |
Minecraft is a truly legendary game at this point, with a good mix of creative gameplay and light survival.
If you’re playing in the regular survival mode, you have to manage your stats while trying to survive the attacks of various monsters.
First, you start by building a simple home base containing a simple farm. Then you explore caves for minerals to upgrade your gear, increasing your chances of survival.
Before you know it, you’ve built a fully-automated resource harvester that cares for your crops, harvests them, transfers them to a conveyor belt where it ends up getting cooked and safely deposited to your storage, all without you breaking a sweat.
Minecraft can be a simple, enjoyable game where you explore caves and fight monsters or a complicated construction simulator for people with creative minds.
It is an open world game in the most literal sense of the word.
The Outer Worlds
| Genre | Sci-fi, open world, RPG, action-adventure, FPS |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes around 13-14 hours to complete and a full, 100% completionist run takes just over 40 hours to finish |
| Developer | Charles Staples |
| Release date | October 25th 2019 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
The Outer Worlds is a product of the original Fallout developers, with stunning visuals, snarky dialogues, quirky situations, a sound combat system, robust character creation, and overflowing loot.
Your character is thrust into a world of a hyper-corporate, class-centric society ruled by corrupt, planet-owning corporations.
Due to a morbid series of events, you become the captain of your ship, which serves as your central hub area.
You can choose two companions out of a colorful cast to join you outside the ship. They offer lots of help during combat and provide entertaining and insightful dialogue.
All the decisions you will make from the beginning up to the end will determine the future of the people and your crew.
This game offers stunning visuals as you travel to different planets. There’s a lot of freedom given to the player in terms of character customization and builds.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
| Genre | RPG, action-adventure, pirate, open world |
| Buy from | In a bundle from Amazon or the official Nintendo store, either in a bundle or in a mega bundle |
| Length | The main story takes close to 24 hours to finish and a 100% completionist run will take you close to 63 hours to complete |
| Developer | Ubisoft Montreal |
| Release date | October 29th 2013 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
I’ve never been a big fan of the Assassin’s Creed games. Despite that, Black Flag was able to capture my attention like no other.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag changes the typical AC formula by introducing a loud and brash protagonist, Edward Kenway.
There haven’t been many great pirate games on the Switch, but Black Flag single-handedly redeems the genre.
It just feels great to just sail the open seas while listening to your crew singing sea shanties in the background. The naval battle system is highly effective, too.
Black Flag may be divisive for AC fans because it strays so far away from the previous games, but it’s one of the best open world games with a nautical flair out there.
Subnautica
| Genre | Survival, action-adventure, thriller, RPG, open world |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or in a bundle on Amazon |
| Length | Main campaign takes 30 hours to finish and a full completionist run will take you close to 58 hours |
| Developer | Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Panic Button Games, Shiny Shoe LLC, and Grip Digital |
| Release date | 16th December 2014 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
Subnautica is a genuinely terrifying experience, and it’s not even a typical horror game.
Instead, it plays on the fear of the unknown and thalassophobia to deliver an open world survival experience where you’re constantly checking for dangers in the periphery.
Set in the distant future, you play as the lone survivor of a deep-space vessel that has crashed on a remote ocean planet.
You have no choice but to explore the ocean and scavenge for resources to help you survive and escape. It is a mesmerizing game when you’re near the surface, interacting with the alien wildlife and underwater plants, then it becomes pure horror as you go deeper.
There’s also a sequel called Subnautica: Below Zero available on the Switch.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
| Genre | Adventure, farming, cottagecore, open world, simulation |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | Main story takes just over 10 hours to finish and a 100% completionist run will take you between 26-27 hours to finish up |
| Developer | Prideful Sloth |
| Release date | 18th July 2017 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
Yonder is an absolutely charming game with a relaxing, cottagecore feel to it.
This is one of the few open world games on Nintendo Switch with no combat at all. Instead, there’s much more emphasis on exploration and crafting.
There’s a main quest and several side quests you can do, which tie in with the various townspeople. There are also light farming elements where you can plant crops, befriend animals, and craft new items.
There are various guilds associated with the different crafting trees when it comes to trading. So, if you want to max out the value of your goods and trade for items unique to the guild, you have to dive into the crafting system and diversify your products.
Coupled with the gorgeous graphics and ambient sound design, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a beautiful alternative to other open world Switch games.
DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2
| Genre | Open world, sandbox, adventure, RPG |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes 55-56 hours to finish and a full completionist run will take you just over 120 hours to complete |
| Developer | Square Enix and Omega Force |
| Release date | December 20th 2018 |
| Co-op | Local and online, up to 4 players supported |
DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 is the perfect sequel, as it takes everything fans loved about the original DQB game and improves upon it.
It shares many similarities to Minecraft but leans more on RPG elements. You can expect to explore, gather resources, build, and fight monsters in this game.
There are so many things to do in this game you’ll quickly lose track of time just trying to tick everything off of your list. There are lots of incredible quests and challenges to take part in.
You’re free to create whatever you want when working on a quest, as long as you fulfill the objective. It acts like a guided building session where you’re trying to work with what’s given to you as creatively as possible.
The more you progress through the primary campaign, the more features you unlock to keep things interesting. This game is an absolute delight, and the open world is beautiful.
Dying Light
| Genre | Action, apocalyptic, RPG, open world, parkour, survival horror |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store |
| Length | The main campaign takes just over 18 hours to finish and a full, 100% completionist run will take you close to 59 hours to complete |
| Developer | Techland |
| Release date | 27th January 2015 |
| Co-op | Local wireless and online, up to 5 players depending on game mode |
It is impressive how smoothly Dying Light runs on the Nintendo Switch. It is crucial to have stable FPS because of all the running (away) you’ll be doing in this game.
The game offers an intricate parkour system that lets you avoid zombies altogether if you’re quick enough to spot the next platform or ledge.
Combat is visceral and methodical here. You can find or create makeshift weapons which are limited by their durability and your rapidly dwindling stamina.
You can also use guns for emergencies if you manage to find bullets for them. But get ready to leave the area once you use one, as it’ll attract a horde.
The game’s difficulty ramps up later in the story. It never feels unfair because you’ll also unlock new moves and stronger weapons. However, certain challenges really push your skills to the limit.
The game becomes truly horrifying at night.
Burnout Paradise Remastered
| Genre | Racing, simulation, sports, open world, adventure |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes 11-12 hours to complete and a completionist run will take you close to the 41 hour mark |
| Developer | Criterion Games and Stellar Entertainment |
| Release date | 16th March 2018 |
| Co-op | Online, up to 8 players supported |
Burnout Paradise is a chaotic open-world racing game where you seamlessly drive around Paradise City, containing five (six with the DLC) large districts.
Unlike the previous entries in the series, you can proceed to challenges however you want, and the game slowly scales the difficulty each time you finish an event.
If you want to race, you can pull up to any of the 120 traffic lights around the world and initiate one from there.
The open-ended system also applies to races, as you can take whatever route you want to the finish line, as long as you get there first.
There are other modes for you to show off your driving skills, like a stunt run where you accumulate points through doing acrobatic stunts.
There’s a fun mode where you slam into other cars on the road to get takedowns and glorious crashes in true Burnout fashion.
But you don’t have to initiate a mode to have fun. There are crashes, jumps, and cars to collect in the overworld. There is tons of joy to be found just cruising around Paradise City at high speeds.
There aren’t many open-world racing games, so give this a shot if you’re a fan of racing games and collecting wicked cars.
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
| Genre | Action, shooter, open world, superhero, crime |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main story will take you 15 hours or so to finish and a full, 100% completionist run will take you around 42 hours to complete |
| Developer | Deep Silver Volition and High Voltage Software |
| Release date | 20th August 2013 |
| Co-op | Local wireless and online, 2 players supported |
If I were to only say one thing about Saints Row 4, I would say that it is absolutely absurd.
You play as the President of the United States during an alien invasion. You and your gang are trapped within a simulation and must escape it to ultimately defeat the invaders.
Some of your gang members manage to hack inside the simulation to give you superpowers, which is the beginning of a wild and wacky story.
This game feels like a weird cross between a GTA game and an Avengers movie.
Aside from the regular carnage you can deal with traditional weaponry, you can also unleash your powers in over-the-top, zany action sequences.
It can be too much at times, but Saints Row 4 never tones it down, which is endearing.
Red Faction Guerilla Remarstered
| Genre | Action, sci-fi, open world, shooter, racing |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | The main campaign takes around 15 hours to finish and a full, 100% completionist run will take you roughly 40-42 hours to complete |
| Developer | Deep Silver Volition |
| Release date | 2nd June 2009 |
| Co-op | Local wireless and online, up to 16 players supported depending on game mode |
Red Faction Guerilla Remarstered is the remastered version of the third entry in the Red Faction franchise.
Revolutions are always fun in video games, and this one takes place on Mars. Most buildings are fully destructible, which means you can take down outposts as chaotically as you wish.
The game starts out deceptively simple. You have your iconic sledgehammer, and you’ll gradually work your way up to more advanced weaponry.
However, the game quickly becomes hectic when you start to raze buildings and decimate troops with advanced rifles and high-powered explosives.
Eventually, you’ll begin to commandeer state-of-the-art mechs where you can cause utter mayhem by crushing buildings and vehicles with ease. There’s nothing more satisfying than piloting a mech and going to town on your enemies.
You’re free to explore and plan out how you go about your revolution as you wish. There’s no shortage of destruction and sabotage you can cause.
Disco Elysium
| Genre | RPG, crime, open world, story-rich |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store |
| Length | The main story takes around 23-24 hours to beat and a full, 100% completionist run will take you just about 46 hours to complete |
| Developer | ZA/UM |
| Release date | 15th October 2019 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
Disco Elysium is one of the best indie games of this generation, and there’s no other game quite like it. It takes inspiration from classic pen-and-paper RPGs.
Still, instead of leveling up traditional skills like strength and luck, you level up 24 distinct personality traits like empathy and reaction speed.
These are not just static skills but unique characters who chime in with their observations and provide new dialogue options.
Disco Elysium starts out as your run-of-the-mill outsider cops investigate a small-town murder mystery. But the game soon establishes that it’s just a vehicle for your own spiritual and philosophical journey.
The conversations are witty, long, and thought-provoking. The game is also very replayable because the dialogue significantly changes depending on your invested skills.
Though the map is smaller than the other open world games in this list, it more than makes up for it with the depth of its characters.
Choose a direction, then talk to anyone you see and witness the strength and wit of the writing. You’ll also eventually solve the murder mystery while doing so.
Starlink: Battle For Atlas
| Genre | Open world, shooter, sci-fi, adventure, RPG, arcade |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store |
| Length | Main story takes around 14 hours to beat and a full completionist run will take you up to the 66 hour mark |
| Developer | Ubisoft Toronto |
| Release date | 1st October 2018 |
| Co-op | Single system, 2 players supported |
Starlink is a fun open world game for those who enjoy spaceship battles akin to the original Starfox games. But unlike those old games where they drop you in and out of the mission, Starlink lets you roam around various planetary systems.
Also, since it’s an Ubisoft game, it’s perfect for completionists because there is a lot of bonus content to discover.
The combat is intricate for an on-rails shooter, offering deep customization for your pilot, ship, and weapons. There’s also an interesting system where you need to swap your guns on the fly when they overheat, encouraging you to diversify.
The Nintendo Switch port is also the most superior version of the game because of the Star Fox DLC.
Fox McCloud and his crew are an extra bonus for Switch players. Many players purchased the game just to experience the nearest thing to a Star Fox revival.
Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition
| Genre | Nautical, adventure, open world, simulation, strategy, RPG |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store |
| Length | The main storyline takes around 17-18 hours to finish and a full, 100% completionist run will take you up to 125 hours to complete |
| Developer | Failbetter Games, Blitworks, and Nephilim Game Studios, Inc. |
| Release date | 6th February 2015 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
Sunless Sea is one of the most unique games on this list.
Set in the Fallen London universe, it tasks you with controlling a sea captain (Zee captain, in-game) and exploring the ominous underground ocean. Unfortunately, your captain and crew will probably die, and that’s a fact you need to get used to.
Story and writing are the most critical elements of the game; in fact, they might be the only thing to keep you going at times because the game’s pacing is somewhat clunky.
You get to choose an ambition that determines your win condition and the story of your captain. For example, if you select wealth, you can win by gathering substantial money and retiring in a mansion.
Sunless Sea scatters its story like breadcrumbs with small notes and cryptic in-game texts. The writing is weird and sometimes depressing. It’s worth reading about the lore for this game.
The game can get hard at times, and you’ll have to make some tricky choices. It’s a truly unique experience, though, and well worth playing.
Crysis Remastered
| Genre | FPS, open world, stealth, action |
| Buy from | The official Nintendo store or Amazon |
| Length | Main storyline is around 10 hours long and a completionist run will take you roughly 13 hours to complete |
| Developer | Crytek |
| Release date | 23rd July 2020 |
| Co-op | No, single player only |
If anyone underestimates the power of the Nintendo Switch, tell them it can run Crysis Remastered. Even though it is an older game, it still holds up gameplay-wise.
It has aged very well, and it is one of the most interesting open world games on Switch.
It is a basic first-person shooter with some stealth elements mixed in.
It was ahead of its time in terms of player freedom and creativity. You have lots of tools at your disposal and plenty of ways to win.
Say, for example, that there’s a group of enemies.
You can approach them guns blazing, creep in through the bushes stealthily, or use explosives to cave-in a whole building at a group of enemies.
There are endless possibilities in this game and it’s a must-play.
