Is the switch joy con drift really THAT bad?

[Furyofthestorm78]

Drift can occasionally fix itself. Not sure how long it will last, but I had some drift a couple of months ago, when my newer (extended battery) console was around 10/11 months old. It was the left joy-con that had the problem, it would continue moving off to the left when pressed. I carried on using it, thinking I would send it away for repair soon. Then a week or so ago, realized that it was no longer drifting.

 

[28142]

Depends on what drift it is, dirt drift could fix itself if it ends up cleaning itself per se, if it's the hardware fault drift then it'll only get worse.

Though the other issue, the one where it's not registering it fully over, aint drift. That's either something broken or dirt.

 

[Duffy]

So quick update:
I have drift on both sticks but they both behave differently. On my right stick, its the usual drift case. It slowly moves up when im not touching it. But its VERY slight and it happens pretty rarely. It doesnt affect gameplay for me tbh. Because splatoon doesnt have any movements for r stick moving up/down and for smash bros, the stick doesnt drift far enough upwards to register as an attack. And as for my left stick, thats the weird case. It all works normally, but when I tilt it right allthe way, it doesnt register it properly. So if i push it right like 9/10ths of the way, its all fine, but push it a bit more and the system registers it as me not touching the stick. So this doesnt affect me either too much. Sometimes, when running in smash bros, my character suddenly slows down, but thats actually helpful because it confuses the opponent .

So here's another question I have: Does it get worse? Is it possible that my drift will stay in the current situation which i'm ok with? Or will it become way worse to the point that i cant play my games anymore?

I'm in mostly the same boat as you in terms of my original pair of joycons (got my switch in 2018). I can't personally attest to if it gets worse, because I made sure to get new joycons for christmas, but I've heard it does get worse, and harder to play games, although not usually to the point of it becoming unplayable.

 

[Mizunil]

So here's another question I have: Does it get worse? Is it possible that my drift will stay in the current situation which i'm ok with? Or will it become way worse to the point that i cant play my games anymore?

Like the other comments, it varies a lot depending on the problem. For me personally (pre-repair the 1st time it drifted) it gradually got worse, and it would make me not wanna play many of my games that utilized the right joycon.

 

[Kalleh]

We didn't use our Switch a ton, and got it in Oct. 2017, and they only started drifting March 2020, so we replaced them finally. But keep in mind the use was VERY light. When they did start to drift, it was awful. When I bought the Animal Crossing Switch, I ended up buying a second pair of Joycons so I didn't have to use the AC ones in handheld. Plus we have a pro controller. However, my brother has gone through 3-4 pairs, and I've heard of so many more people having problems like that. Nintendo advertises as family-friendly, but with how rough kids are on Joycons, and how rough games like Smash are (anyone remember the 3DS pad incident with Smash 3DS?), there's no reason to make Joycons so flimsy, especially when they charge so much for them, too. It truly is ridiculous. My husband is pretty rough on his PS controllers and he's had maybe 3-4 in 7 years. Compare that to my brother having 3-4 pairs of Joycons in maybe 2-3 years. It's definitely unfair.