How to Gift a Nintendo Switch Game on the eShop

Nintendo added digital gifting to the Nintendo eShop for Switch and Switch 2 in mid-November 2026. It is a genuinely useful feature and a narrower one than most headlines suggest: you can only send a gift to someone in your Nintendo Account family group, and only from a console running system version 23.5.0 or later.

Here is the whole process, plus the catches that decide whether it works for your situation.

Before you start

Update your console. System version 23.5.0 was released on November 9, 2026 and should download automatically when the console is online. You can also start it from System Settings, then System, then System Update.
Check the family group. Both the sender and the recipient must be in the same Nintendo Account family group, which holds up to eight accounts including yours. You can set one up from your Nintendo Account settings.
Confirm the recipient’s system. The recipient needs a linked console, because you choose which of their systems receives the gift.

The steps

Open the Nintendo eShop on your console.
Find the game you want to give — games, DLC and upgrade packs are all eligible where the product allows gifting.
On the product page, tick the Give as a Gift checkbox, then continue to purchase.
Select the recipient from the members of your family group, then choose which of their linked systems the gift should go to.
Pick a gift-wrap colour and any other options, then complete the purchase as normal.

Nintendo is explicit that gifts are sent to the recipient immediately, so there is no scheduling and no undo once you pay.

What the recipient sees

The gift arrives on the recipient’s HOME Menu. They can select it, accept it and start playing straight away. There is no code to redeem and no email step, which is the main advantage over buying an eShop gift card.

The limits Nintendo has confirmed

Family group only. Friends on your Switch friends list cannot receive a gift unless they are in your family group.
Supervised accounts cannot send gifts. A child account can receive one, but cannot buy and send one.
Some products are not eligible. Nintendo says eligibility varies by product and does not publish a blanket list.
Purchase frequency is capped. Nintendo says the number of digital gift purchases allowed in a given period is limited, without specifying the number.

One date discrepancy worth knowing

Nintendo’s US news post says the feature arrives on November 16. The system update notes for version 23.5.0, as reported by Nintendo-focused outlets, say gifting becomes available after an eShop update scheduled for November 17. If the option is missing on the 16th, check again after that eShop update rather than assuming the feature failed.

Alternatives if your recipient is not in your group

You can still buy a Nintendo eShop gift card or a download code from a retailer and send the code. That route works for anyone, has no family-group requirement and no purchase cap, but it also means the recipient has to redeem a code rather than receiving a gift directly.

If you are planning a Switch purchase alongside the gift, our breakdown of the Zelda 40th anniversary Switch 2 bundle covers what is in the box and what it costs in Canada, and the Switch Online classic games update is worth knowing about if the recipient is new to the system.

What we did not do

We did not complete a live gift purchase. The steps, requirements and limits above come from Nintendo’s own announcement and system update notes. We have not invented a purchase cap number, an eligibility list or a currency conversion, because Nintendo does not publish them.