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Nintendo Switch users can now switch between playing their favorite game and watching their favorite anime without putting down the console. The Crunchyroll app has finally launched on Switch, along with the streaming service’s free trial offer of its premium plans.
Crunchyroll is one of the most popular platforms where fans outside can watch the latest episodes of their favorite anime. Considering many gamers are also fans of anime, the launch of the Crunchyroll app should be welcome news.
Switch owners can now download the Crunchyroll app from the Nintendo eShop for free. Crunchyroll also offers free use of its anime streaming services with ads. For ad-free streaming, people will have to pay for premium subscriptions, including the $7.99 Fan and $9.99 Mega Fan plans. The latter is also available with a 12-month one-time payment subscription for $79.99.
New Crunchyroll users can try any of the premium plans for 14 days for free, which should be a good chance to see how the app performs on Nintendo Switch. Aside from ad-free streaming, Crunchyroll’s paid services also offer unlimited access to its library that includes some of the most popular anime like “One Piece,” “Demon Slayer: Kimestsu no Yaiba,” “My Hero Academia, and classic titles “Naruto Shippuden” and “Hunter x Hunter.”
Paying Crunchyroll members can also watch new episodes one hour after they air in Japan and download episodes for offline viewing. However, Nintendo notes, “Offline viewing files are large, so we recommend using a microSD card with this software for the best experience.” But the app itself only needs 110MB of storage space, according to the information on eShop. Anime fans can watch their favorite shows on Nintendo Switch via docked, handheld, and tabletop modes.
While the release of the Crunchyroll app on Nintendo Switch took a while, it should not come as a surprise. Shortly after Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, Nintendo said the gaming experience is its priority, but it was also open to having other streaming services on the system. “We built the Nintendo Switch to be a world-class gaming device, meaning we want you first and foremost to play games on the system and have an incredibly fun experience,” Reggie Fils-Aime, then-chief operating officer of Nintendo America, told the Washington Post at the time. “We’re talking to a range of companies about other services, companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon — things that will come in time.”
Hulu, Twitch, and YouTube apps came to the Nintendo Switch eShop before Crunchyroll. It is still unknown if Netflix is also planning on making the same move.
