Can Nintendo Switch Family Be Shared by Different Households?

Nintendo’s Switch Online service is a fantastic value proposition. It's like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold and allows you to play multiplayer titles online with other people.

Unlike Sony and Microsoft's offerings, though, Nintendo Switch has a family membership. This allows you and up to seven other people to share online benefits.

You may wonder if you can share the service with other households. This article will answer that question and show you exactly how to set Family Sharing up.

You can absolutely share a membership with people from another household. As long as you have their email address and add them to your Family Group, you can share the family membership with anyone.

Before you share the membership, though, there are several steps you must take, like setting up a Family Group.

How to Set up a Nintendo Family Group Using a Browser

The first thing you must do is create a Family Group and add some members to it. You can only do this from a browser on your PC or smart device.

Have whoever will be the group administrator login to the Nintendo accounts page.
On the left, select Family Group
Click Add a member
Add a family member by clicking Invite to family group
Add their email address
Repeat this until you've added all family members

Each person you add will need to confirm and accept your invite. If you're adding any kids to the group, it might also be worth setting up parental controls on your Nintendo Switch.

Once you've done this, you’ll be ready to add a family membership. You can do this with a top-up card, or you can head to the Nintendo Membership page to buy it directly from Nintendo. After buying a family membership, everyone in your Family Group can take advantage of the benefits it offers.

Things to Know About a Nintendo Switch Family Membership

There are a couple of things to know about Nintendo Switch Online Memberships.

First off, there are no restrictions to how many people in the family group can use it at the same time. If you can organize it, all eight people in the group can hop online together to battle it out in Mario Kart 8, for example.

It’s not just restricted to family. You may have a group of friends who all own a Switch and want to save money by sharing a membership. There’s no reason you can’t do this. You can even share a membership with someone who has different country settings.

A Nintendo Switch Online Membership gives access to lots of NES and SNES games to play at any time. This is an amazing addition for retro fans or anyone who wants to explore the history of classic gaming.

All family members will get access to Cloud Saves, so if you sign in on another console, you’ll be able to recover your save data and continue a game where you left off.

If you ever need to check who is in your Family Group, you can do this on your Switch. Go to Nintendo Online > Membership Options & Support. Click the link that says you can check your family group here.

Sharing a family membership is a fantastic way to save money in the long run. Even with just two members, it still works out cheaper than individual online memberships, but obviously a full complement of eight members will give you the best value for money.

When you're sharing the membership, you should also have no trouble organizing online multiplayer with someone you know.