The shift in Switch emulation after Suyu’s shutdown

The collapse of successor projects

Suyu administrators archived the GitHub organization on September 13, 2026, after Nintendo sent seven copyright infringement notices to GitHub in late August 2026. This wave of notices caused the removal of 401 Switch emulator repositories, 311 of which contained Suyu code. This event follows the legal pattern seen with the 3DS emulator Citra, which shut down in March 2024 after Nintendo pursued its lead developer. The Yuzu developers, who initiated the project out of passion for Nintendo consoles, expressed deep disappointment that users utilized the software to leak content and ruin the experience for legitimate buyers through unauthorized downloads. The Yuzu team’s Patreon brought in roughly $30,000 per month, so the $2.4 million settlement represents a massive hit for Tropic Haze LLC. Nintendo argued that Yuzu existed to allow the piracy of titles like Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which saw over one million unauthorized downloads. Nintendo continues to use legal action to protect its intellectual property, and visitors to the Kyoto museum report that the company uses proprietary emulators on the Switch to play Virtual Boy games while using Windows PCs to run Super Nintendo titles.

Ryubing and Citron lead the market

Ryubing and Citron now carry the bulk of Switch emulation traffic for users fleeing the Suyu archive. Ryubing is a fork of the Ryujinx codebase, which stopped receiving updates in October 2024 when the lead developer reached an agreement with Nintendo to remove the project organization and all assets from GitHub. Ryubing avoids single-point takedown risks by using self-hosted domains and mirrors instead of a single GitHub repository. Citron focuses on performance for Android devices, and its 0.12.25 stable version released in late 2025.

The search volume for these projects differs significantly. Ryujinx-based builds pull over 40,000 monthly searches in the US, while Citron draws approximately 9,900. Suyu still generates 1,900 searches monthly despite its status as an archived project. The Suyu team released version 0.04, which added a static AArch64-to-x86-64 recompilation system, only one day before the project went dark. Other forks like Eden have moved to different distribution methods, such as itch.io bundles, to avoid GitHub removals. Successor projects like Azahar and Lime3DS picked up the Citra codebase to keep 3DS emulation alive after the 2024 shutdown.

Stability versus performance

I recommend Ryubing if you want the stability and compatibility record found in the Ryujinx legacy. The Ryujinx codebase contains years of refined edge cases for games released between 2017 and 2024, providing a level of reliability that newer forks struggle to match. However, Ryubing patches a frozen codebase, so it lacks the room for structural performance changes that a project like Citron provides. Citron remains a practical choice for mid-range Android phones because it maintains a steady development pace with frequent commits.

The Skyline emulator also faced a shutdown due to Nintendo’s concerns regarding the use of Lockpick RCM to dump keys from Switch hardware. Skyline developers agreed to stop development to avoid violating copyright through the dumping of keys from their own consoles. This pattern of targeting high-profile projects through legal pressure or DMCA sweeps seems to be Nintendo’s standard strategy for managing its software ecosystem. You should check your own hardware compatibility before deciding which fork to download. Will Nintendo eventually find a way to target the self-hosted domains used by the Ryubing team?