Nintendo says the Switch is played as much docked as it is portably

Developers that have a game in the works for the Nintendo Switch may be interested in this little tidbit dropped by Nintendo about how players use the sometimes-portable game console.

According to the company, current data shows that the Switch is used just as much in its docked, TV-connected form as it is as a standalone system. Nintendo Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing Doug Bowser recently told Ars Technica that the split is surprisingly “about even,” noting that the system is used “about 50 percent in the dock and 50 percent away from the dock.”

Of course, this varies per game, he explained, pointing out that games like Just Dance tend to favor docked mode while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild skew more toward that 50/50 split. 

That data naturally comes with a few caveats, however. Nintendo can only see docked versus undocked preferences for players that have their systems online, so not all users are included in the data. AdditionalNintendonedo can’t tell when the system is being used in tabletop mode versus portably, so both of those uses are grouped together as un-docked play.