Is Switch Emulation Still Alive in 2026? What's Active, What's in Maintenance, What's Dead

Yes, Switch emulation still works. As of November 3, 2026, the original Yuzu and Ryujinx are both gone and Nintendo filed several more DMCA waves this year, but their forks keep getting updates. Eden is the pick for Windows, Linux, Steam Deck and Android; MeloNX covers iPhone and iPad; Apple Silicon Macs also have Ryubing and Astris. On the Switch 2 side, several unofficial Eden forks that boot a few Switch 2 games on PC have appeared since October 29. They're experimental, and official Eden still doesn't support the Switch 2. Since October 31, nxnative has also supported 4 Switch 2 games on Mac, by porting them natively instead of emulating.

Still actively updated

We rechecked every version on November 3. No stable release changed since November 1; Eden's official nightlies, paused since October 18, resumed on November 1 and November 3. Lemon is a new Android emulator from September; the copyright headers in its source show it forked from Eden (Yuzu, then Eden, then Lemon), and it supports Adreno and Mali GPUs. The project is about six weeks old and its compatibility hasn't been independently tested. See Lemon.

Maintenance-only or slowing down

Dead

The 2026 crackdown

On February 12, a Nintendo DMCA notice named 13 emulators. On March 27, another hit Eden's build repositories. On August 17, seven notices in one day took down more than 400 repositories. Active projects had already moved their source off GitHub, so development kept going, but download channels kept moving and impostor download sites kept multiplying. As of November 3, GitHub's public DMCA notices don't include the Switch 2 forks or any of the native port projects; what got pulled in late October was mainly Switch 2 demo videos on X, reportedly through Nintendo copyright claims.

What about Switch 2?

After the ns2jb jailbreak went public on October 22, developers could read game and system files from their own consoles. From October 29, several unofficial Eden forks published builds:

• eden-nx2: the first public build that boots Switch 2 games (Windows), with no updates since;
• Eglantine: the fastest-moving fork, which XDA said on October 31 runs Mario Kart World surprisingly well; it reached build 168 on November 3;
• PokeDinner, and the Android port Eden SX2A (its November 2 release is marked as the final, unmaintained one);
• Eden-NS2: archived (read-only) when we checked on November 3, with no reason given.

None of them come from the Eden team. Eden's own Switch 2 pull request, #4588, is still a draft, and a co-founder reviewing it on October 31 estimated only about 40% of the code is truly useful. Another draft, #4611, was closed on November 1 (see Eden's Switch 2 pull request). Only a few games run, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokémon Pokopia and Splatoon Raiders, with plenty of frame-rate, graphics and stability problems; AMD GPUs crash especially often. More in the first emulators that run Switch 2 games and on our Eden Switch 2 forks page. To avoid impostor downloads, read fake Switch 2 emulator scams.

Outside emulation, Switch 2 games picked up two more routes from late October:

• nxnative has officially supported Switch 2 since October 31. As of November 3 it lists 4 games (Donkey Kong Bananza, Splatoon Raiders, Pokémon Pokopia, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave), all tested on Mac only; iPhone and iPad are untested. Citing the project's docs, VideoCardz says Bananza's opening runs at 60 fps on an M4 Pro. Switch 2 games are built from an extracted game folder and don't need keys. See nxnative adds Switch 2 support.
• Static recompilation: pokopia-recomp (November 2) is the first PC recompilation of a Switch 2 game, as a Windows test build. dkb-pc-recomp for Bananza boots but isn't playable yet. See the first Switch 2 PC recompilation.

Beyond emulators: native ports and static recompilation

October's other big Switch story wasn't about emulators at all:

• nxnative turns original Switch games into native iPhone, iPad and Mac apps; on November 1 its site listed 109 playable games and 19 at 60 fps. Since October 31 it also supports Switch 2 games (tested on Mac only; see above). Mario Kart World isn't on its official list yet. Will Faust's late-October Mario Kart World demos on Mac and iPhone used a private fork that isn't public (see nxnative and Mario Kart World on Mac and iPhone).
• A static recompilation wave: from mid-October, Link's Awakening, Pokémon Let's Go, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Metroid Dread, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tears of the Kingdom and others got unofficial native PC versions. They translate the game's code directly into a PC program, require you to supply your own game files and build locally, and most say they were written with AI. The tracker recomp.party listed 14 Switch projects on November 1, and the first week of November added recomps of Super Mario Odyssey, Bayonetta 3 and Xenoblade Chronicles X. Details in October's Switch static recompilation wave.

What this means for players

• Pick by platform: PC, Mac, iOS or Android. If you're unsure, start with best Switch emulator 2026.
• Only download from official sites. Searches for "Yuzu download" or "Ryujinx download" mostly turn up third parties; see how to spot fake emulator sites. For real Switch 2 progress, see the state of Switch 2 emulation.
• The full list is on the emulators page.