[SOLVED] Nintendo eShop not available in your country

If you’re receiving the error message stating that the Nintendo eShop is currently not available in your country when attempting to access the Nintendo eShop on your Nintendo Switch console, don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you should be able to fix this issue on your own easily!

Possible causes

Due to licensing issues, Nintendo eShop is not available in all countries. Geoblocking is the most common cause of the error message “the Nintendo eShop is currently not available in your country”.

What to do if Nintendo eShop is not available in your country

There are two methods that you can try when seeing the error message “the Nintendo eShop is currently not available in your country“. You don’t have to try them all. Just work your way through the list until you find the one that does the trick for you.

Change region on your Nintendo Switch console
Use a VPN connection

Fix 1: Change region on your Nintendo Switch console

If you’re a US resident and now traveling to a foreign country where Nintendo Switch eShop is unvailable, you can try changing your region on your Nintendo Switch console. Here’s how to do it:

On your Nintendo Switch console, go to System Settings > System > Region.
Set your region to The Americas.
Open Nintendo eShop. When asked to enter a region, select United States.
Go to Location Settings and click Change.
Set a ZIP code from the US.

After that, you’ll be able to purchase new games using your PayPal account or credit card issued in the United States. Otherwise, you can only pay with prepaid cards.

See if this fix works for you. If not, read on and try the next fix, below.

Fix 2: Use a VPN connection

Another fix you can try is using a VPN connection to access Nintendo eShop on your Nintendo Switch console.

Using a VPN connection helps bypass geoblocking, making you appear to be connected from elsewhere. For example, if you connect your Nintendo Switch console to a VPN server located in United States, you would be able to access the US Nintendo eShop when you’re not in the Uninted States.

In fact, the benefits of using a VPN on your Nintendo Switch go far beyond this. Here’re just a few good reasons why you need a VPN on your Nintendo Switch:

Download & update games at lightning speed
Reduce lag and in-game delay
Get exclusive game deals in other regions
Avoid ISP bandwidth throttling
Protect your online identity
Protect your device from DDoS attacks

How to use a VPN connection on Nintendo Switch console

Nintendo Switch console doesn’t support the installation of VPN applications. To use a VPN connection on your console, you need to connect your device like smartphone, laptop, or tablet to a VPN server first. Then, you just need to set a mobile hotspot on your device and connect your console to the hotspot.

If you don’t have a VPN server, or if you don’t have time, patience or computer skills to configure a VPN server on your own, you may want to choose a mature VPN solution on the market.

Due to safety concerns, do not use those so-called free VPNs, as they are not safe, and they are always crowded during busy times.

A paid and reliable VPN usually delivers a better and more stable performance during peak hours, so it guarantees your smooth gaming experience while playing online games on your console.

If you’re not sure which VPN you should choose, here we recommend: NordVPN. With NordVPN, you can optimize your gaming, risk-free.

Get NordVPN with a discount

Enjoy secure gaming with NordVPN!

Then, you can refer to the our article: [SOLVED] How to use VPN on Nintendo Switch and follow the instructions to connect your console to a NordVPN server via hotspot.

Hopefully, after reading this article, one of the fixes above helped you access Nintendo eShop. If you have any suggestions or questions on this issue, feel free to leave us a comment below. Thanks for reading!

By Justin Zeng

Justin is a technical writer. As a Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator Associate, he loves exploring new technologies and writing technical how-to tips to help people fix their computer / phone issues. When he's not writing, there's a 99 percent chance he's reading, playing video games or listening to music.

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