PC Gamer noted that Yuzu was able to run Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! shortly after the games' release, albeit with audio issues. The author of the article expressed concern with the ability of Yuzu to emulate games that were available commercially at the time. In October 2018, Kotaku published an article noting that Super Mario Odyssey was playable in Yuzu. Skyline is an experimental Switch emulator for Android devices, which was initially capable of playing Sonic Mania, Celeste, and parts of Super Mario Odyssey. In April 2018, it was reported that another emulator, Ryujinx, was initially able to play part of Cave Story.

The coverage and development of the emulators has attracted notable attention from the industry, including Nintendo, as well as Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, which, at the request of publishing companies partnered with them concerned about piracy, has developed a DRM measure intended to prevent play of emulated Switch games.

Switch emulators have been widely noted by video games journalists for the swift and significant progress of their abilities to accurately emulate the console, as they are already able to run existing and new titles for the console in a playable state, sometimes within days of their release, as well as able to run on a variety of devices, including PCs running Microsoft Windows and Linux, and the Steam Deck. Multiple emulators are in development, the most well-known being Yuzu and Ryujinx.

Emulators of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo's current eighth-generation video game console, have been in development since 2017, less than a year after the console's release.