Buy the PowerA Wired Controller. It is the cheapest pad here, it is officially licensed, it is a comfortable full-size controller, and for a second player sitting in front of a docked Switch the cable is simply not a problem — which makes it the best value on the page by a clear margin. If the second player sits across the room, or the Switch gets used in tabletop mode, pay a little more for the wireless 8BitDo Ultimate 2C instead.
One thing to check first, because it is the only way this goes wrong: the PowerA wired pad has no rumble and no motion controls or amiibo support. A small number of Switch games lean on motion for specific actions, and a few party games assume it. If the game you are buying the pad foris one of those, you need a pad that has motion — or a Joy-Con. For the enormous majority of co-op and couch games, including almost everything on our cheap games to play with friends list, it makes no difference at all.
The third pick, the GameSir Nova Lite, is here for one specific buyer: the household where the same pad also has to work on a PC or a phone. It is a fine Switch pad and a more flexible one; it is not the best-feeling of the three.
What a second controller actually needs
A second pad has a different job from your main one, and it is worth being deliberate about that rather than buying another of whatever you have.
It needs to be cheap, because it gets used less
Unless you play two-player every day, the second pad spends most of its life in a drawer. The value maths therefore looks nothing like the maths on your primary controller: paying first-party prices for hardware that is idle five days a week is the definition of a bad deal. This is the clearest case on the whole site for buying at the bottom of the market deliberately rather than reluctantly.
It needs to survive being handed to someone else
Second controllers get used by guests, siblings and children, which means they get dropped. A wired pad has no battery to swell and nothing to lose, and the two wireless picks here both use Hall-effect sticks that do not develop drift with age — a feature that matters more on a pad which sits unused for months at a time. If you want the mechanics of that, see what causes controller stick drift.
It does not need rumble, motion or a gyro — usually
This is the whole reason a cheap wired pad works. Most couch co-op is played with sticks and buttons: platformers, co-op puzzle games, farming games, beat-em-ups, fighting games. Rumble is a nice-to-have. Motion is genuinely required by a handful of titles and genuinely assumed by some party games, so the rule is simple — check the specific game before you buy the cheapest pad, and if it needs motion, buy one that has it.
It should match where the second player sits
If both players are on the sofa in front of a docked Switch, wired is fine and cheaper. If the second player roams, or the console gets propped up on a table for two, wireless is worth the extra. That is the entire decision, and it is covered in more depth in wired vs wireless controllers.
How many controllers do you actually need?
Two covers the vast majority of couch play. Four is only worth buying if you own several four-player games and actually have four people — at which point the cheap wired pad becomes even more obviously the right purchase, because you are buying three of them. Our cheap games for couples and Human: Fall Flat vs Overcooked 2 pages both note player counts, which is the number to check before you buy hardware for a party that will not happen.
Then buy the game, not more controller
The point of a cheap second pad is that the saving buys the co-op game you wanted it for. Two-player games are among the best value in the Switch catalogue, and the cheapest of them cost less than the difference between the pad at the top of this list and a new pair of Joy-Con. Start with best Switch games under $20.
