Elden Ring Beats Metal Gear Solid on Switch 2 eShop: What It Means
Elden Ring has officially launched on Switch 2, and it is already squatting at the top of the platform’s eShop chart, with an $80 price tag and pre-load momentum behind it. But the bigger story is the challenger breathing down its neck: Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 landed at #2 in its debut week, proving that Konami’s legacy lineup can go toe-to-toe with FromSoftware’s open-world colossus on Nintendo’s portable hybrid.
Nintendo ranks these charts by revenue rather than units sold, which reshapes what these placements mean. A $30 price gap between first and second place is doing real work here, and for handheld players, that makes the chart a window into how much Switch 2 owners are willing to pay for AAA portability.
Price Tags Move the Revenue Needle
Elden Ring’s $80 asking price is the obvious reason it holds #1 over Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2’s $50. Since the eShop chart is revenue-based, a high-priced launch can outweigh a lower-priced new release that may well have shipped more units. That matters on a handheld because Switch 2 owners are being asked to pay full console-generation prices for portable access — and they’re apparently saying yes.
We don’t have unit sales or performance numbers from the chart itself, but the demand signal is clear: a game like Elden Ring, already available on PC and other consoles, is now one of the top-grossing items on Nintendo’s storefront. That’s not a curiosity; it’s evidence that portability is a premium feature worth paying for.
MGS4’s Download Chart Win Is a Preservation Story
Look at the download-only list and Metal Gear Solid 4 sits at #1, above Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption. That’s a game that spent more than a decade trapped on PlayStation 3, and now it’s the top-grossing digital item on Nintendo’s newest handheld. For players who grew up on that console, this is the kind of preservation move that makes Switch 2 feel like a portable archive, not just another game machine.
The Master Collection Vol. 2 package clearly has legs beyond its boxed chart position — Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker also appears at #13 on the download chart. Together, they point to a handheld audience that will happily pay for legacy content when it’s portable, suspend-friendly, and bundled with care.
Pre-Loads and Dual Editions Keep Handheld Libraries Moving
The chart’s lower half is already signaling what’s next. Orbitals is climbing at #7 and #13 on the strength of pre-loads alone, while Onimusha: Way of the Sword occupies #21 and #24 with standard and premium editions. That dual-edition pattern is becoming standard on Switch 2, and it’s a reminder that digital storefronts are now the primary shopping aisle for portable players who don’t want to carry cartridges.
For handheld owners watching this catalog fill out, the takeaway is straightforward: Switch 2’s eShop is turning into a true AAA battleground. Between Elden Ring’s heavyweight launch, Konami’s legacy collection, and a steady drip of pre-loadable new releases, the revenue chart is becoming the clearest available map of what portable players actually value — and it looks a lot like the big-screen console library, minus the couch.