Bethesda ‘Investigating’ Skyrim Switch 2 Performance Issues, as Fans Brand Latest Port a ‘Disaster’

Just a day after Bethesda announced and launched The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Nintendo Switch 2, the publisher has acknowledged the game has performance issues.

In a lengthy thread on reddit that brands the port as a “disaster,” there are widespread complaints about input lag and the game’s locked 30 frames per second visuals. “There’s like a whole second between me flicking the stick and my character moving its head,” the post’s author wrote, describing the experience as worse than “online Smash Bros.”

Many have compared Skyrim’s Switch 2 port with that of the far more recent Cyberpunk 2077, which offers 40 frames per second on Nintendo’s new hardware while rendering considerably more detailed environments. And there has been criticism, too, of the fact the game hogs 53GB of space on the Switch 2’s relatively limited internal memory, compared to just 25GB on PC.

A separate reddit post with more than 2,400 upvotes showing a video of the game’s input delay can be seen below:

On Bethesda’s official support site, the publisher has listed a question that asks: “Why am I experiencing frame rate issues with The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim following the Anniversary Edition update on Nintendo Switch?”

“We are investigating reports of performance issues on Nintendo Switch with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim after the Anniversary Edition update,” is the official response. There’s no word on fixes yet, but the publisher said anyone experiencing issues could subscribe to the article for updates.

“In addition, you can provide feedback and information regarding on this topic via the Feedback form,” Bethesda concluded.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is being sold for $59.99. Alternatively, anyone who owns Skyrim Anniversary Edition on the original Switch can pay $19.99 to upgrade the game and play on both consoles.

Included for your money are Skyrim’s base game and the three official Expansions: Dawnguard; Dragonborn; and Hearthfire. Players on Switch 2 get experience enhanced resolution, improved load times, performance optimisation, Joy-Con 2 mouse support, motion controls, Amiibo support, and more versus the OG Switch version, taking advantage of the more powerful hardware.

This week, IGN talked with Bethesda Game Studios exec Todd Howard about the company’s future plans. Intriguinly, Howard said that while The Elder Scrolls 6 was still the next big new video game to be in the works, Fallout is the franchise the studio is doing the most in right now.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social