It’s that time of year again – Nintendo sent out an email for yearly Switch stat usage. Last year, reading this made me sad. This year, I was still sad, especially since I’d made resolutions around my Switch gaming to improve how much time I spend with the system and tackling the very real backlog I’ve formed.

I even made some resolutions last year to play more Switch and find a way to organize switch games in my backlog. I did discover Deku Deals, which I’ve been using as that tool to not only track sales but keep an eye on what’s on my Switch game-wise. This has been an excellent change, but it’s not been enough, apparently.

So, what do my stats say?

Well, this is a little better than last year. And in fact, I actually finished one of these games that I played (Coffee Talk). But I still need to encompass more of my backlog since I’m absolutely picking up more games than I’m playing.

Not quite as much time playing games, either. I did have a drop-off of Animal Crossing, but I know it’s still the game I played the most this year. Speaking of which:

Yeah, that’s a MAJOR drop-off in Animal Crossing. And I know a bulk of this gaming time was in October/November, especially during the Mog Tomes event in FFXIV when I was using it to fill my time during Praetorium cutscenes.

I still haven’t finished Zelda – and I want to – and I really want to put more time into Monster Hunter Rise, but now I’m going to have to relearn the game again at this point.

I can see where I made a strong effort to come out of the gates running in January and February – I’m sure that’s when I was working on Zelda and Coffee Talk. In May and June is when I was playing Monster Hunter. And, again, October/November was Animal Crossing again.

Yep, I’m still very much a docked TV player. The time spend handheld was likely Animal Crossing while running Praetorium in FFXIV. However, I’m quite happy to have the option for handheld for situations like that!

The takeaway – my Switch needs more love! I knew that already, but really, these stats hurt. It’s just tough since the Switch competes with PC gaming such as FFXIV and now my PC Game Pass.

I vow to do better next year, even if it is to a point to focus on trying one new game each month for Switch. I’m really not sure I want to go back to monthly gaming goals, but I might need to come January. I slacked off on goals this year in a big way, but now that I have a lot more to work on in FFXIV with Endwalker’s release, it might be a good thing to start again in 2022.