Cross-Save Between Steam Deck and Switch: What Actually Syncs in 2026
Which games genuinely cross-save between a Steam Deck and a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2, which only pretend to, and how to check any game before you trust it with your save.
By Sam Okafor
Updated: 2026-05-21
Cross-save between a Steam Deck and a Switch only works when the game runs its own account system. Steam Cloud and Nintendo’s cloud never speak to each other, so owning both machines does nothing for your saves on its own. Roughly two dozen games sync properly. Most of the ones people assume will, like Stardew Valley and Hollow Knight, do not.
That last part catches everyone out, so it’s worth being precise about why.
Why the platforms don’t sync your saves
Your Steam Deck saves to Steam Cloud. Your Switch saves to Nintendo Switch Online’s cloud. Those are two sealed boxes that were never built to talk, and no update is coming to change that. When a game “cross-saves” between the two, it is not the Deck or the Switch doing the work. It is the game itself, keeping your progress on its own servers behind its own login, then pulling it down on whichever machine you sign into.
So the question is never “do these two devices cross-save?” The answer to that is always no. The real question is “does this specific game run its own cloud account?” If it does, your save follows you. If it leans on Steam Cloud or Nintendo’s cloud, it stops at the device.
Once you see it that way, the list of what works stops being random and starts making sense.
The games that genuinely cross-save (Steam Deck ↔ Switch)
These titles carry your progress between a Steam Deck and a Switch or Switch 2 through a developer or publisher account, not a platform cloud. Sign in on both, and you pick up where you left off. The common thread: every one makes you log into something that isn’t Steam or Nintendo, and that login is the cross-save.
Last verified: 21 May 2026. Cross-save support changes without announcement, so we re-check this list each quarter. Confirm on a game’s own support page before you rely on it.
| Game | Account that carries the save | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hades | Steam login on the Switch version | Mirrors both ways |
| Hades II | Steam login on the Switch version | Same system as the first game |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | GOG account | Link it in-game; works across Switch and PC |
| Divinity: Original Sin II | Steam account | Cross-progression also covers iPad and Mac |
| Civilization VI | 2K account | Use the cloud save slot, not the local one |
| Kingdom: Two Crowns | ”Continue Anywhere” account | The account is the thing that syncs |
| Rocket League | Epic Games account | Rank and cosmetics travel too |
| Fall Guys | Epic Games account | Free-to-play, account-based |
| Fortnite | Epic Games account | Full cross-progression, but it won’t run on the Deck (see below) |
| Minecraft (Bedrock) | Microsoft account | Bedrock only, not Java (see below) |
| Immortals Fenyx Rising | Ubisoft Connect account | |
| Dauntless | Epic / Phoenix Labs account | Free-to-play, account-based |
| SMITE | Hi-Rez account | Free-to-play, account-based |
| Paladins | Hi-Rez account | Free-to-play, account-based |
| Realm Royale | Hi-Rez account | Free-to-play, account-based |
| Rogue Company | Hi-Rez account | Free-to-play, account-based |
| DAEMON X MACHINA | Publisher account login | |
| Game Dev Tycoon | Developer cloud login |
A pattern worth seeing in that list: the games that genuinely sync are either account-based live-service titles (the Epic and Hi-Rez ones) or single-player games whose developer chose to build a real cloud account (Hades, Civ VI, Divinity, The Witcher 3). If a game leans only on Steam Cloud or Nintendo’s cloud, it isn’t here, and it won’t sync. The mechanism is the reliable signal; any single entry can go stale, which is why the list carries a verified date.
The two traps that look like cross-save and aren’t
Minecraft. Bedrock Edition syncs cleanly through your Microsoft account, and the Switch runs Bedrock. The problem is your Deck. Buy Minecraft the normal way on Steam and you get the Java launcher, which does not share worlds with Bedrock at all. So Minecraft only cross-saves with your Switch if you go out of your way to run Bedrock on the Deck, which is fiddly and not how most people install it. Treat this one as conditional, not a given.
Fortnite. Epic’s cross-progression is the gold standard: skins, V-Bucks, Battle Pass and all. It is also irrelevant here, because Fortnite does not run on a Steam Deck. Epic has refused to enable its anti-cheat on Linux, and SteamOS is Linux, so the game simply won’t launch. Your Switch progress is real and portable. There’s just nowhere on the Deck for it to land.
I flag both because they are exactly the games someone reasonably expects to “just work,” and the disappointment lands after you’ve already put hours in on one side.
The games that don’t cross-save (even though half the internet says they do)
Here’s the one that starts arguments. Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Skyrim, Undertale, Disco Elysium, Don’t Starve Together, the Persona ports, Dragon Quest XI S. None of these officially cross-save between a Steam Deck and a Switch.
You will find guides claiming otherwise. What they’re describing is manual save-file transfer, and on the Switch side that requires custom firmware to pull a save off the console and inject it back. On a standard, unmodified Switch, which is what nearly everyone owns, there is no supported way to move these saves in or out. So for practical purposes, on these games, your Deck save and your Switch save are two separate lives. Finish a Stardew farm on the Deck and it stays on the Deck.
This isn’t a knock on the games. It’s the honest state of play, and it’s better to know before you start a 60-hour RPG on the wrong machine.
The cross-save that always works: your Deck and your own PC
Worth saying plainly, because it gets lost in the Switch question. Your Steam Deck and any other PC on the same Steam account sync automatically, every time, through Steam Cloud. Play an hour of Vampire Survivors on your desktop, close it, pick the Deck up on the train, and it’s right there. No account linking, no per-game setup, as long as the game supports Steam Cloud (most do, and the store page tells you).
That’s the quiet advantage of the Deck for anyone who also games at a desk. The headache is only ever the Nintendo side, because Nintendo is the one walled garden in your bag. Within the Steam world, the Deck is just another PC, and your saves treat it that way.
Before you swap devices mid-game
Even on a game that does cross-save properly, you can still lose progress if you rush the handoff. Two rules keep me out of trouble:
- Let the cloud finish before you sleep the console. When you stop on one device, give it a few seconds on Wi-Fi to push the save up. Slamming the Switch shut the instant you quit, or yanking the Deck off Wi-Fi, is how you arrive on the other machine an hour behind.
- Don’t play the same game offline on both. If you make progress on the Deck while the Switch was last left mid-session offline, you can end up with two saves that disagree. The game then asks you to pick one and bins the other. Always sync, then switch.
Neither is complicated. Both have cost me an evening’s progress at some point, which is exactly why I do them now without thinking.
Switch 2 changes nothing about the mechanism
The Switch 2 launched on 5 June 2025, and it inherits the same cloud model as the original. Nintendo’s cloud still doesn’t reach Steam. What the Switch 2 does add is straightforward save transfer from your old Switch, so your existing Nintendo progress moves up to the new machine. That’s a Nintendo-to-Nintendo move, not a bridge to your Deck.
If a game cross-saved with your Deck on the original Switch, Hades being the obvious one, it does the same on the Switch 2 through the same account login. Nothing about cross-save with the Deck got better or worse. The account is still the only thing that matters.
How to check any game in 30 seconds
Before you commit hours on a new game, run this:
- Does the game make you log into an account that isn’t Steam or Nintendo? Epic, 2K, a Larian or Supergiant or HoYoverse login, a “Continue Anywhere” prompt. Any of those means cross-save is likely. No separate login means no cross-save.
- Check the in-game cloud/save menu. Account-based games usually have a “cloud save” slot that’s clearly distinct from your local save. Use that slot, not the local one.
- Search the developer’s support site for “cross-save” or “cross-progression.” The publisher’s own page is the only source worth trusting. Forum threads age badly.
If a game passes step one, start it on whichever machine you’ll play most and link the account before you build up progress. Linking after the fact sometimes forces you to pick one save and discard the other.
Most of my own library lives on the Deck, so when I find a game that genuinely syncs I start it on the Switch, because the Deck can always pull the save down later and starting on the locked-down machine first saves grief. If you don’t already own a game on the device you want as your “home” copy, buy it there rather than splitting progress. Key sites like Fanatical and Green Man Gaming usually undercut the Switch eShop on the PC version.
A microSD card is the other thing worth sorting early, on both machines, because cross-save handles your progress and not your installs, and you’ll run out of room on either device fast.