If you’re a Nintendo Switch 2 owner who mostly buys digital games as opposed to cartridges (like me!), its 256GB of internal storage will run out quickly. Buying a microSD Express card gives you more storage, though at a higher cost than most people likely want to pay. However, Lexar’s 512GB and 1TB microSD Express cards are currently selling at the lowest prices we’ve seen yet.
The 512GB model is $88.47 ($31 off) at Amazon, or double the extra storage to 1TB for $157.96 ($62 off), also at Amazon. That’s only a little more expensive than a comparable cards from Onn, Walmart’s house brand, but those are frequently out of stock (including at the time of publishing). In general, these are the best prices we’ve seen yet on this pricey storage.
The number of games you can install to a microSD Express card depends on the size of the card you buy, of course, as well as on the games in your library. For example, Donkey Kong Bananza requires just 8.9GB, while Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition eats up 60.6GB. Regardless, having extra space for digital games will likely be necessary at some point, even if it’s not right now.
Here’s another reason why you should consider buying one, especially while they’re cheaper: several publishers are opting for Nintendo’s Switch 2 Game-Key cards, which look like cartridges, but are effectively keys that unlock a download and authenticate your system to play it. So, even if you’re buying a physical cartridge of a new game, you may need to rely on the extra storage space afforded by a microSD Express card to let you play it.