2019 for me. Zelda Links Awakening and Astral Chain.

2017 was definitely a banging year... But I played and completed Breath of the Wild on WiiU, hence why 2019 gets the nod.

2017 it's been all down cliff since then.

My most played games on Switch are Mario Kart (2017), Animal Crossing (2020), Breath of the Wild (2017), and Witcher 3 (2019).

That said, there are lots of much smaller/shorter games that I played other years. I think technically, I bought around 15 games last year - although, six of those were Final Fantasy games. I also got several major FF re-releases in 2019 (including remasters of FF7, 8, and X).

But 2017 also had Super Mario Odyssey. The game wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was incredibly popular. Other games I got in 2017 included Disgaea 5, Arms, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Golf Story, FE Warriors, and Stardew Valley - probably some others I forget.

Close race for #2 between 2019, 2021, and 2023 in the poll.
I'm intrigued to see so much love for 2021 in particular; not that it was a bad year, just not as obviously packed as some others. Was it that people really, really loved Metroid Dread maybe?

Seems nobody likes 2018 haha

Thought the release of Smash Ultimate would attract at least a few votes. I guess 2017 was such a massive year that many played the games from 2017 in 2018. other than Smash the best games released in 2018 was rereleases of games previously available on other consoles/PC.  

Kinda funny that the most successful game on Switch (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) isn't even a notable release :D

I know it's basically a Wii U port, but the double item system and battle mode were new.

Considering it had me playing a ton of great games that year, with notable personal releases like Kirby Star Allies(game was great by the time DLC was done, sue me), Smash Ultimate(duh...), Octopath Traveler and XC2 Torna the Golden Country which ranks has one of my best experience of all time, I'd say I had a better time through it than years like 2019 and 2020. Not like these were bad mind ya.

Though, it's a god-send that I argue the Switch never experienced truly a low point à la WiiU during it's active lifecycle .... Before the present lul that is lol. But it's obviously not supposed to be beasting now on its 8th year going.

I voted for 2021 for the sheer volume of good gaming experiences as i remember it, personally. It went something like Mario golf, New pokemon snap, miitopia, Rune factory 5, Warioware, Cruis'n blast, Mario party superstars, BDSP. I still think i'm missing something as well. (Unfortunately i'm not massively into Metroid). Banger after banger imo.

I've never played Dread, so 2021 was more of a snoozefest for me than I would've hoped. I only bought a few games from that year.

2020 was largely a snoozefest after Animal Crossing and Xenoblade Defintive Edition launched in the first half of the year.

2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023 were paced pretty well for first-party games and third-party games I cared about. 2018 was a snoozefest until Super Mario Party in October (fun but disappointing), 2020 was dull for almost all the second half of the year, 2021 was pretty uninteresting all year for me, and 2024 seems enjoyable for a later year of Switch but is unlikely to hold a candle to 2017, 2019 and 2022-2023. I'm expecting a quiet 2025 unless there are multiple notable crossgen games from Nintendo. 

Reminder: I got a PS4 in 2019 and even got a PS5 in 2022. A lot of the third-party support Switch has received overlaps with PlayStation, and I don't have any interest playing most of it on Switch. 

So far for completed years.

1. 2017: Slightly under 10 months, but I already have said in previous posts why it's my favorite.

2. 2023

3. 2019

4. 2022

5. 2020

6. 2018

7. 2021