Buying from another country's Nintendo eShop

1. Check three things first

1. Languages. Each region's version of a game can have its own languages. Games from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong often include English, but not always. The game's page here lists the languages when we know them; the eShop page of that country is the final word.
2. Add-ons. If you will want DLC, an expansion pass or a Switch 2 upgrade pack, buy them for the same region as the game: for Switch games Nintendo says DLC works only with the game of its own region, and for Switch 2 it says this depends on the software. Buying the game and its add-ons with the same account, without changing that account's country in between, keeps them in the same region.
3. How you will pay. Without a card issued in that country you need that eShop's cards. Code sellers price them a little above or below face value, in your currency: compare that with the saving before you start.

2. Two ways: a second account or a country change

3. A second account, step by step

1. Make the account. On accounts.nintendo.com, create a Nintendo Account with an email address you do not already use for Nintendo, and choose the country whose eShop you want. With Gmail you do not need a new mailbox: add a plus sign and any word to your address, for example name.surname+japan@gmail.com or name.surname+newzealand@gmail.com. Nintendo sees a new address, and its mail still arrives in your usual inbox.
2. Add it to your console. System Settings › Users › Add User, then link the new Nintendo Account by signing in with its email and password. A console holds up to 8 accounts.
3. Open the eShop as that user. You now see that country's eShop, with its prices and currency.
4. Add money. In that eShop choose "Redeem code" and type in the code of a Nintendo eShop card for that country, or pay with a card or PayPal if that eShop takes yours (see Paying).
5. Buy the game in the eShop on the console, or on Nintendo's website signed in with the second account (the "Buy on the Nintendo eShop" button in our How to buy window opens the game's page there).
6. Play as yourself. Switch back to your own user and start the game. Every user of a console can play a game whose virtual game card is loaded on that console, each with their own save data.

4. Changing your account's country

1. Clear what blocks it. Spend your eShop money (in Europe, Australia and New Zealand you can instead agree to lose it), switch off auto-renewal for Nintendo Switch Online, Pokémon HOME or any in-game subscription, and cancel pre-ordered add-ons.
2. Change it. On accounts.nintendo.com: User Info › Profile › Edit, choose the new country, Save changes, then I agree.
3. Reconnect. The console's eShop follows the account's country the next time it connects.

Your games stay yours, and Nintendo Switch Online stays active in a country that has it. To come back, it is the same steps again, and money added in the other country cannot come with you.

5. Paying

• Cards: Nintendo only takes credit and debit cards issued for the eShop's own region (its example: a US card works only in the North American eShop). A card from home is usually refused abroad.
• Nintendo eShop cards (gift cards): prepaid codes for one country or region. Check the country on the listing before you pay: a card only works in the region it was sold for, and Nintendo will not exchange or refund one bought for the wrong region. Each country's page here links a search for its cards on Eneba and Play-Asia.
• PayPal: some eShops take it; whether it works with an eShop of another country depends on PayPal and that country.
• What it really costs: our prices are the eShop's own, converted at the day's reference rate. You pay the card seller's price (or your bank's exchange rate), so compare that with the price here. Canada's eShop adds tax at checkout, so we add 5% to its prices; in the US, state sales tax may be added at checkout.

6. After you buy

• Save data belongs to the user who plays, not to the account that bought the game. Cloud backups need Nintendo Switch Online on that user.
• Online play needs Nintendo Switch Online on the user who plays, so your own membership counts wherever the game was bought.
• Add-ons must match the game's region (for Switch 2, Nintendo says it depends on the software): the simple way is to buy them with the account that bought the game. My Games remembers which eShop you bought each game in.
• Lending: in a Nintendo Account family group you can lend up to three virtual game cards at a time, each for up to 14 days on one console; a borrower has one borrowed game at a time and keeps their save data. Both consoles must be online and near each other, and some games (certain Nintendo Switch Online member exclusives, for example) cannot be lent. A family group can include accounts set to different countries.
• Removing or deleting: removing the second user from your console deletes that user's save data on the console, but not the Nintendo Account or its games (link the account to a user again and the games come back); your own user's saves are not touched. Deleting the Nintendo Account itself is final: its games and eShop money are deleted with it, so keep the account.

7. Is this allowed?

Nintendo calls the account's country your "country of residence", and its help pages describe changing it when you move to another country; its rules on cards and Nintendo eShop cards are built around buying where you live. An account set to a country you do not live in does not match that. Nintendo publishes no rule or penalty for it, and we know of no public statement from Nintendo about it, so we cannot tell you it is allowed; its account agreement does let it suspend an account that breaks the agreement. Buying abroad this way is common. You need no VPN or anything like it: the account's country alone decides the eShop.

8. Finding the cheapest country here

• Every game page lists all the eShops that sell the game, cheapest first. Click a country to see how to buy there, with the price, the languages and a link to the game in that eShop.
• Once you have accounts in a few countries, tick them as My markets: every list then shows each game at the cheapest of those countries.
• Add games to your wishlist and switch on sale alerts: you get a mail when one goes on sale.
• The eShop country pages show what each country sells, its sales today and how often it is the cheapest.

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