If you need space on your Switch, delete some elusive demo save data

Or save data from games you have no intention of playing again

So our own Jordan Devore sent me this tip last night and my brain exploded. Over on Reddit, MondoCoffee suggested something people rarely think about, and many folks are singing its praises: “delete save data from demos or games” to free up Nintendo Switch space. What a perfect way to start my Friday.

So when I upgraded to the Switch OLED, I ended up getting a bigger SD card, but on my old Switch, I’m hurting for space with tons of AAA games on it (that I do frequently come back to). I’m always trawling the menus for stuff to shave off, but I never really thought of swapping to save data and making cuts there.

As MondoCoffee notes, they freed up 2GB of space just by deleting save data from demos and old games. The demos bit is especially brilliant, as I never even thought about how that data is still lurking on my system.

To do it yourself, you just need to go to the manage data portion of your Switch, then scroll all the way down to “delete save data.” Some games take up a whopping 1GB or whereabouts of space just on save data alone.

Personally, as someone who always kept their memory cards and gaming history intact, I have no interest in deleting save data for full games I still own. But demos? Yeah, get that the heck out of here.