I did the stupid thing and bought the digital version tonight and tried it. My initial load time went from 33 seconds to just under 24 seconds. I hate that I had to pay another $92 for this time save though... Now I own 2 copies of dread... May need to look into selling the physical copy, just to make a little of my money back.

That explains it then. I own a physical copy of the game. Sucks that I am losing 4 minutes on my run due to slow load times because I bought a physical copy at release. (I never had any plans on speedrunning this game, but I took to it so that I decided to at least learn the route if nothing else)

I wouldn't be able to submit it if played on an emulator, so that's why I've been sticking to playing it on the Switch. I'll never have a true-time on the switch though... so why bother submitting it in the first place... knowing my 1:44:30 should be a 1:40:30 is kind of gutting. (Not great times I know, but I am not a speedrunner. I've only ever attempted to run two games before this in Mega Man Rock N Roll and Superliminal)

I start my runs like everyone else (I start my timer and hit continue at the same time) but while everyone I see loads up at the 23 to the 27-second mark, for me it's 33 seconds. Almost every loading screen my switch seems to be 3-10 seconds slower, making me lose several minutes over the course of a run.

Has anyone else had this happening to them where their Switch seems to load slower than any speedrun you've seen online?

Maybe my Switch is a dud that just loads for crap? No idea, but I know this, I will never have a decent time because my load times seem longer than any others I see. I have actually done side-by-side comparisons on transition screens and mine are always several seconds slower on the screens I have tested... The first loading screen being the biggest time loss of upwards of 10 seconds over others I have seen, depending on who's video's I compare to)

A capture card is the only way to record the Switch itself. I'm personally using a cheap one called "Mirabox" got it for under $100 CAD. It records well from my experience. Solid 60 FPS from it at 1080p.