The Switch had a solid year in 2021, with a variety of first-party releases from Nintendo, and third-party support from other studios. With 2022 just a couple of weeks away, Switch players can check just how much they played this year in Nintendo’s 2021 “Year in Review” personalized infographic.
Nintendo, like Sony, Microsoft, and the rest of the gaming industry, had its share of struggles in 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite successfully launching the Nintendo Switch OLED, a top of the line Switch variant, this past October, the microchip shortage has made available units quite limited, with bots and scalpers making the problem even more strenuous. Those who were already Switch owners or were lucky enough to acquire one this year were able to enjoy many wonderful games from Monster Hunter: Rise in the spring, to Metroid Dread this past fall. Between these titles and the rest of 2021’s offerings, many players will likely put in a solid amount of time on their Switch consoles this year.
The Nintendo Switch “Year in Review” for 2021 is live now for players to learn about their playtime this past year, as well as some comparisons to 2020. Many of the basic categories are covered up front like how many games were played, and how many total hours were logged, as well as more specific ones like a month-by-month breakdown, and which day they played the most. Fans can look forward to finding out what their top 3 most-played games in 2021 were, with per-hour breakdowns included as well. Interested users can check out their “Year in Review” here.
Notably, this year’s wrap-up is missing some of the features of Nintendo’s 2020 “Year in Review.” For starters, this year does not include any sort of “player type” category, that labels what type of gamer a person is depending on how many hours they’ve played, what games they were, and in what Switch mode. Additionally, despite notable franchises like The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pokemon all celebrating notable anniversaries this year, there is no specific category for them in this year’s summary. Last year’s summary featured a whole page dedicated to Super Mario titles in recognition of the franchise’s 35th anniversary.
This “Year in Review” is a pretty harmless (if a bit half-baked) tool for users to reflect on their 2021 Switch gaming. While the information presented is certainly insightful, one might wonder what happened to the personality that was present in the 2020 review with the “player type” and anniversary recognition. Many fans were disappointed by the minimal offerings for Nintendo’s anniversaries this year, so this would have been a nice place to pay tribute to them one last time before 2022 begins. Either way, 2022 is set to be a big year for Switch, meaning it’s time for predictions for the next “Year in Review.”
