Crush Your Friends in Splatoon with a VPN for Nintendo Switch
- Play with minimal lag
- Keep your connection safe
- Buy any Switch game
- 30-day money-back guarantee
How to Set Up a VPN for the Nintendo Switch in 3 Steps
Step 1
Sign up for Private Internet Access
Step 2
Set up PIA on your router or virtual router
Step 3
Connect to a server & start gaming
Why You Need a VPN for Nintendo Switch
Fast Speeds
The last thing you want to deal with when you’re about to fire off a blue shell in Mario Kart is lag. You deserve that win. Well, there are a variety of issues that could cause a laggy connection between your computer and Nintendo’s servers (or any third-party game’s servers).
A VPN can help you create a faster, more stable connection by routing your data via a more direct route to the game servers. PIA VPN has a large network of servers all over the world, so you can always find a VPN server close to the game server you want to play on.
No Bandwidth Throttling
In some cases, ISPs like to throttle traffic that’s used for downloading or playing online games. You shouldn’t have to wait days for the latest Tears of the Kingdom update, or have to deal with ISP-imposed lag in Splatoon. With PIA VPN, you don’t have to.
PIA VPN both encrypts your traffic and hides its ultimate destination from your ISP and anyone else who might be trying to monitor your internet connection.
DDoS Attack Protection
DDoS attacks can only happen if the attacker knows your IP address. Nintendo is usually pretty great about security, but no system is perfect. Routing your traffic through a VPN server hides your IP address from Nintendo and other players alike.
You’ll also want a VPN with good built-in DDoS protection, so that you can just keep playing without even seeing lag. Hey, Smash Bros. players can get intense.
Play Nintendo Switch Games Anywhere
One little wrinkle in this age of online game releases is that some places get early access to games and DLC… and some don’t. If you’ve preordered a game and you want to play it as soon as possible, using a VPN to route your traffic through a server in another country is the best way to do that.
PIA VPN has servers in 91 countries, so you’re almost guaranteed to be able to play the game you want as soon as it’s available.
How to Set Up PIA VPN to Your Router to Play Nintendo Switch
The only way to really use a VPN on the Switch is to set up the VPN on your router/modem. The good news is that plenty of routers and modems do support VPNs, but the ones supplied by ISPs usually don’t. You’ll need to look up the tech specifications for your hardware and, if necessary, upgrade your router. We provide detailed guides to getting set up.
Then, all you have to do is sign up for PIA, log into your router’s admin page, and connect to a VPN server.
Is Nintendo Region-Locked?
To put it simply, no. Neither the consoles nor the physical game cards are region locked (except those distributed in China), but Nintendo has different stores for different regions. Unfortunately, not every game is available in every region.
Japan is particularly notorious for its sheer number of country-exclusive releases. If you want to buy those games before western ports are made, you can use PIA VPN to get a Japan IP address and access them.
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FAQ
Yes, you can! But you’ll have to connect to the VPN via your router/modem. Not all routers can do this, but quite a few of them can. You’ll just need to look up your specific router/modem to make sure. If you’ve got the right hardware, you can use PIA VPN to protect your whole network at once, not just your Switch.
Check out our guides to see which routers support PIA VPN, then sign up and connect to the VPN server of your choice. It’s pretty easy once you know the basics.
This depends entirely on your router. PIA VPN has guides that tell you how to enable a VPN on a variety of router/modem devices. No matter what router you have, the basic process will look like this: log in to your router’s admin page, add your VPN’s information, select your server location, and go.
If you run into any issues, remember that we have 24/7 Customer Support available via both live chat and email.
You really shouldn’t. The problem with free VPNs is that they often just don’t do what you need a VPN to do. They tend to be slow, have limited server locations, and almost ignore security concerns. Some even collect your data to sell it.
PIA, on the other hand, makes a great gaming VPN with industry-standard security, a 10-Gbps network, and servers in 91 countries around the world. With PIA, your data will get there fast, and safely.
No. The Nintendo Switch and its games (the physical cartridges in particular) are not region- or country-locked. However, different countries get different versions of the Nintendo online store. These different versions might sometimes be missing a game you want.
You can get around this by connecting to PIA, which is one of the fastest VPNs out there. You can use it to route your traffic through a server in a country where the game is available.
In short, yes. There’s nothing wrong with using a VPN on your Switch. It doesn’t support VPNs by default, so you have to use your router, but you won’t get into trouble for it.
But you don’t have to take our word for that. With our 30-day money-back guarantee, you can try out PIA VPN long enough to make sure it works properly with your router and your Switch.
Yes! A VPN can help you hide your IP address and allow you to route your traffic through servers in different countries. If a Switch game happens to be coming out early in a different part of the world, chances are that PIA can help you access it early. It should work for DLCs as well.
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