The 8BitDo Ultimate has been at the top of our best Nintendo Switch controllers list for almost three years - here’s why that’s unlikely to change

At TechRadar Gaming, I’ve been curating our best Nintendo Switch controllers buying guide for a good few years now. Throughout that time, one third-party controller has sat at the top spot for two and a half years (it’ll be three in November!).

That would be the near-immaculate 8BitDo Ultimate controller for Nintendo Switch, which has been the gamepad I’ve consistently returned to in my time with the original Switch, owing to its myriad improvements over even the excellent Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.

Now, there certainly have been plenty of great third-party Switch controllers over the years, and I’ve tested many of them - including the GameSir Tarantula Pro and the Nitro Deck. But for me, the feature set of the 8BitDo Ultimate provides a complete package with no unnecessary bells and whistles.

You’re getting an excellent play experience and best-in-class build quality on the console - all at a very agreeable price point in 2025.

Ultimately brilliant

So, why has the 8BitDo Ultimate sat on our best Nintendo Switch controllers throne ever since 2022? After all, it’s not like there’s been a dearth of great gamepads for the console - quite the opposite, actually.

But what I appreciate the most about the 8BitDo Ultimate is the sheer simplicity of it. Aside from a couple of remappable buttons on the rear of the gamepad, it’s a remarkably straightforward feature set - almost refreshingly so in 2022 when it was released and still now, in 2025. No built-in display, no RGB lighting, no swappable parts. I’m not opposed to any of these things, for the record, but they certainly don’t make or break the overall play experience for me.

Aside from the lack of near field communication (NFC) for amiibo scanning, the 8BitDo Ultimate feels precisely like an upgraded version of the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. Superb build quality, better-feeling buttons, gyro support, and an included charging dock all contribute to a better value package overall. Price is a factor, too, of course. While the gamepad launched at $69.99 / £59.99, it can reliably be found for much less given its age (it’s only $49.99 at Amazon US at the time of writing, for example).

Hallowed Hall

What really put the 8BitDo Ultimate on the map, though, is its Hall effect thumbsticks. While certainly not the first controller to feature stick drift-combating technology, it arguably popularized it on Switch. I’ve owned the controller since its release and used it regularly on both Switch on PC, and those sticks have yet to give up on me. That’s years of reliability that simply isn’t offered by Nintendo’s first-party kit like the Joy-Con or even the Switch Pro Controller.

For me, the only area where the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller wins out is in battery life. Nintendo’s pad has a seriously strong reputation in this regard, able to last upwards of a staggering 40 hours. Few controllers - if any, on all platforms - are able to match this. It’s a frankly absurd amount of battery life to the point where I’m always surprised when I get that ‘low battery’ warning on Switch.

That said, the 8BitDo Ultimate doesn’t perform terribly, at around 15-20 hours, which I discovered during my testing phase with the controller. That’s actually cut above many wireless controllers, which tend to top out at around 10-12 hours on a single charge. And with the included charging dock, you have a handy way of getting the Ultimate back up to full charge in just a couple of hours.

So what’s the use case for the 8BitDo Ultimate controller in 2025? After all, the pad has been succeeded by the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 - a tremendous controller in its own right.

However, the Switch-compatible version of the Ultimate 2 is a touch more expensive. It does have superb TMR thumbsticks, which do an even better job of combating stick drift, but this is balanced out by slightly worse battery life, at around 10-15 hours in my testing. You can’t go wrong with either controller, but the original Ultimate is the one to go for if you’re budget-conscious.

Furthermore, the 8BitDo Ultimate is now compatible with Nintendo Switch 2 thanks to a recent firmware update. That’s exceptional news if you took one look at the Switch 2 Pro Controller price and figured you’d prefer to look elsewhere.

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