Could Super Animal Royale Be the Hook for Switch 2? YouTube Trends Suggest It

Reddit user JampyL says Switch2 players can currently reach YouTube through the free multiplayer game Super Animal Royale, which still leaves one basic fact unchanged: Nintendo has not released an official native YouTube app for Switch2 yet.

The workaround is surprisingly usable, but only in a narrow sense. From Super Animal Royale’s main menu, players can open a recommended video and then select “Watch on YouTube.” That kicks them over to the Switch2 system’s external browser. Once there, this stops being just a trailer embedded in a game menu and becomes a limited but functional path to the web, including the ability to search YouTube videos by keyword.

It is still a stopgap, not a proper solution, and the limits are obvious. Videos are basically locked to fullscreen, so you cannot properly browse comments or use the page the way you would on a normal device. Resolution is also fixed at 360P. In handheld mode, that is passable; on a docked Switch2 connected to a larger screen, the image looks noticeably blurry.

The bigger issue is compatibility. YouTube’s web version does not adapt especially well to the Switch2 browser, and thumbnails, channel icons, and homepage banners often fail to load. The good news is that, as the original post notes, individual videos usually still play normally once opened. So at a minimum, this method does cover the basic use case: find a video and watch it through to the end.

Community reaction suggests the demand is real. Social platforms are already full of players asking when Switch2 will finally get an official YouTube app, and the fact that Super Animal Royale is now being used as an entry point says more about that unmet demand than the game itself. The original Switch did have an official YouTube client, so the common view across the industry is that a Switch2 version is probably a matter of time. Earlier, an official YouTube social account even posted that the Switch2 app had been scheduled and was coming soon, though that post was later deleted.

If you want to watch video on Switch2 right now, this is a reasonable temporary fix, not something to rely on long term. Handheld users can try it for short viewing sessions without too much trouble. Docked players, or anyone who cares about image quality, are better off waiting for the official app. For Nintendo and YouTube, the message from players is already clear: when a new console needs Super Animal Royale to open a backdoor to video, the native client should not stay on the back burner.