Compared to emulation efforts for consoles like the PS2, PS3, and Wii, the Nintendo Switch emulation scene has had a much bumpier ride. In recent years, Nintendo has forced several prominent Switch emulators, notably Yuzu and Ryujinx, to shut down. But that hasn’t stopped people passionate about Switch emulation from pushing forward, and one project still going strong is the Eden emulator.

Launched last year, the Eden Nintendo Switch emulator has been steadily improving, rolling out updates that boost performance and fix glitches in a wide range of games. Now, to kick off 2026, Eden has released its first major update of the year (via Android Authority). While not as big as some past updates, it’s still jam-packed with improvements that should make running the Switch emulator on your device, like your Android phone or PC, much better. Let’s dive into it.

Developer

Utopia LLC

Ads

No

The Eden Emulator is a Nintendo Switch emulator available on Android, Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Improvements have been made to a number of games

There is also lots of performance optimizations included in the update

For starters, the Eden emulator’s latest update, version 0.1.0, fixes graphics issues and glitches in several standout Switch titles, including Metroid Prime 4, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. So if you’re planning to emulate any of these games, the experience should be smoother.

Beyond title-specific fixes, this update brings a host of performance improvements and optimizations, all detailed in Eden’s official changelog. One change targets lower-end systems, improving shader compilation speed to boost overall performance.

The changelog also highlights a key update: “Significantly reduced memory synchronization and DMA operation overhead.” With the Sync Memory Operations setting enabled, performance should improve even further. The Eden team says that while this may benefit desktop users most, Android users will see gains as well. Speaking of Android, another change that should improve performance across a variety of devices is “improved resource usage” for Android GPUs.

The Eden emulator’s renderer also received several tweaks to improve game stability, including fixes for flickering and enhanced rendering on devices with Qualcomm chipsets — helping both Android users and Windows ARM laptop owners.

The update also brings a dedicated news page to the app, which the Eden team says they will use to share news about their latest releases.

While this update certainly isn’t the end-all, be-all for fixing performance issues and glitches the Eden emulator has, I’m really glad to see so much progress being made, and hopefully it’s a sign of even better things to come in the future for the Switch emulation scene.

What devices is the Eden emulator available on?

You can play it on Android and PC

If you’re curious about the Eden emulator and want to give it a try, it’s available on several platforms, including Android, Windows, Linux, and macOS. That said, the Eden developers note that the macOS version is still experimental, and performance won’t be on par with Android or Windows just yet.

At the moment, the only official way to download Eden is from its GitHub page, where you can grab the latest version for your platform of choice.

It’s worth noting that the emulator briefly appeared on the Google Play Store last year before being taken down, and it’s unclear if it’ll ever return. But given Nintendo’s track record with Switch emulators, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.

Additionally, as is the case with most emulators, the Eden emulator download includes only the emulator itself, with no firmware or games. To actually play anything after downloading it, you’ll need to figure out how to emulate Switch games yourself using your own legally obtained BIOS and games.