The latest Nintendo Switch 2 eShop charts for the week of July 19, 2025 are now available.
Donkey Kong Bananza was already #1 last week thanks to pre-loads, and now continues its winning steak. Also worth mentioning, the Super Mario Party Jamboree Upgrade Pack and Shadow Labyrinth appear in the top five.
Below are the full Nintendo Switch 2 eShop charts for the week of July 19, 2025:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were huge landmarks for the franchise on Nintendo Switch, and they were also the beginning of a new philosophy. In previous Zelda titles, the intended routes through the games were fairly linear (speedrun tricks and glitches aside). Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword all clearly intended you to do their dungeons in a planned order, and by the time Skyward Sword released, some fans began to want less linearity in their Zelda games and more freedom. Indeed, when Breath of the Wild released in 2017 for Wii U and Nintendo Switch, that request was answered – from that point on, the entire Zelda series has shifted to a new idea: let the player do whatever they want, in any order they want. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both have five main “dungeons” (if you count Divine Beasts as dungeons), and for the most part you can tackle them in any order. In fact, you don’t even have to do them – you can skip right ahead to the final boss if you think you’re up for the challenge.
The point here is, now the pendulum has shifted the other way. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were universally acclaimed and sold excellently, but some fans now think that the emphasis on freedom and lack of direction makes the games feel too empty and pointless. This begs an interesting question: with that in mind, what could we see out of the next big Zelda title on Nintendo Switch 2 in a few years? Will the developers listen to the admittedly vocal minority of complaints, or will they double down on their current philosophy and make the next big title free and open-roaming, too? It’s impossible to know for sure, but today we’re talking about freedom versus linearity and some things we’d like to see out of the next big Zelda game.
Although the gaming industry has been hit pretty hard by layoffs over the past few years, it seems that in comparison, Nintendo has been relatively immune to similar challenges.
According to the most recent employee data, Nintendo’s turnover rate at its headquarters in Japan comes in at only 1.9% in Japan (it’s not terribly different elsewhere such as 5.1% at Nintendo of America). In other words, the company isn’t seeing a ton of layoffs (or employees deciding to leave on their own). This is based on data between April 2024 and March 2025.
July 9: If you’re itching to play Wild Hearts S before it comes to Nintendo Switch 2 at the end of the month, we’ve got good news – a demo has started to arrive.
As of now the demo for Wild Hearts S has rolled out in Japan and Australia. We imagine that the North American and European listings will update tomorrow as well. Even so, any Switch 2 owner can download the trial right now if they create a Japanese or Australian Nintendo Account.
Tying in with its digital release, two boxed versions have been revealed for The Wandering Village. It’ll be a bit until they’re ready as the current launch target is Q1 2026.
Serenity Forge is preparing both a standard edition and a collector’s edition. They include the following items:
Bandai Namco released a launch trailer for Shadow Labyrinth, its new take on Pac-Man. This time around, the company has produced a Metroidvania game.
For those that need a refresher, check out the following overview:
Much like Super Mario Odyssey that came before it, Donkey Kong Bananza includes a metric ton of collectibles to find on each layer. Writing in-depth location guides for the bananas and fossils would take several weeks at a minimum, so in the meantime, we’ve got a particularly helpful tip that will bring you closer to the 100percent completion mark. You can actually put these recommendations into play within the Lagoon Layer, which is Donkey Kong Bananza’s first real level.
Today, Level-5 announced that it’s once again delaying Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road.
The game has been pushed back several different times throughout the years, so the latest development may not come as a surprise. In any case, we’ll now be seeing it on Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch on November 13, 2025. It was most recently planned for August 21.
Esophaguys, the previously-announced physics-based platformer, shared its release date today. Those on Nintendo Switch will be able to play it starting on August 1, 2025.
We originally heard about Esophaguys back in February. The game is seeing a bit of a delay as it was originally planned for spring, but now we have a date locked in.
As a reminder, here’s what to expect:
February 24: Rockbeasts is coming to Nintendo Switch, publisher Team17 and developer Lichthund announced today. We’ll be seeing it later in 2025.
Rockbeasts is a role-playing management game in which you take on the role of a manager of an up-and-coming rock band. The group starts out as a band of misfits, but you’ll lead them to the top and on to stardom.
