When building a gaming PC or buying a console, it is always difficult to know what size hard drive you need. Will 1TB be enough? A few years ago I would have saidIn!But some AAA games now require 100-250 GB of spaceelk, which means a 1TB drive will only let you store a few games.
Would a large drive (such as a 2TB, 4TB or 8TB drive) be better for storing your games? Let's find out.
Contents hide
1How many games can 1TB, 2TB and 4TB hold?
2Calculate exactly how many games your drive can hold
3Examples of different game formats
4PSA: "1 TB" does not mean 1,000 GB of usable space for games
How many games can 1TB, 2TB and 4TB hold
A typical 1TB hard drive can store up to 6 or 7 modern AAA PC games with all DLC and updates installed, as these games often require 150 GB or more of disk space. However, you can store 100-300 smaller/indie games as they only take up 1-3 GB of disk space on average.
To give some examples:
- Minecraft often uses only 1 GB of disk space.
- ARK: Survival Evolved (with all updates and maps installed) willuse a full 350 GB!
- Terraria barely uses 50 MB (yes, MB, not GB!) of space.
- Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War kost 250 GB.
It's frustrating how much difference there is between each game, but I'd aim for an average of 150GB for large,moderne pc-games– and on average 3-5 GB for smaller (or indie) games. You can then calculate how many games fit in larger drives:
A 2TB hard drive should be able to store 13-15 modern AAA PC games or 250-600 small/indie games. While a 4TB hard drive should have capacity for almost 30 modern PC games or almost 1,000 smaller/indie games!
Calculate exactly how many games your drive can hold
The calculator below will help you calculatearound the rainhow many games your storage drive can hold.
TB
System
Kind of game
Quantity
Needed space
Moderne AAA-games (alle DLC/updates)
Older (or smaller) AAA games
Indie games
Number of games
Total space required
0GB
Free space left
0GB
Remark:While this calculator is reasonably accurate based on our testing, it can never be 100% accurate, especially since games often receive new updates, patches, and DLC, which can increase their disk space requirements. Thus, the results of this calculator should always be taken as a rough guideline only.
Examples of different game formats
The table below shows the disk space used by different games. It's worth noting that some games will download less than these amounts, but once the downloaded files are unzipped and installed, they will use the full amounts we specify.
Some games also required less space when they were first released, but this number increased with each new update and patch (for example, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided went from 45 GB in 2016 to 75 GB in 2022).
| Game | Disk space required | Game release date |
| Hitman 2 | 104 GB | november 2018 |
| Hitman 3 | 70 GB | January 2021 |
| Deus Ex: Humanity divided | 75 GB | augustus 2016 |
| Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | 100 GB | november 2016 |
| Call of Duty modern warfare | 200 GB | October 2019 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | 150 GB | October 2022 |
| Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 250 GB | november 2020 |
| ARK: Survival evolved | 100 GB | June 2015 |
| ARK: Survival Evolved (all DLC and maps) | 350 GB | June 2015 |
| Mass Effect: Legendary Edition | 120 GB | mei 2021 |
| 40th Anniversary of Microsoft Flight Simulator | 150 GB | november 2022 |
| Final Fantasy XV (PS5, alle updates en DLC) | 100 GB | november 2016 |
| Final Fantasy XV (PC, alle updates en DLC) | 170 GB | March 2018 |
| Age Of Empires IV (non-4K/non-game pass) | 86 GB | October 2021 |
| Age Of Empires IV (4K/Game Pass-editie) | 220 GB | October 2021 |
| Lot 2 | 120 GB | september 2017 |
| Rocket League | 20 GB | July 2015 |
| Minecraft | 1 GB | november 2011 |
As you can see, the more updates and DLC you end up installing, the more disk space a game ends up taking up. However, this is quite frustrating because you could install a 100 GB game in 2015 (like ARK) and if you update and play the one from a few years ago, it will take up 3 times the disk space!
Unfortunately, all you have to do is disable all updates (that's onebadidea because it skips necessary security fixes), you can't really control a game's hunger for ever-increasing amounts of disk space!
The average of all the above games is 140 GB of disk space per game. PC games, and I think it's safe to assume that future games will need thisaroundalso this amount. Yes you willsomemassive games like BLOPS Cold War that use 250 GB, but you'll also find big three-in-one games like Mass Effect: Legendary Edition that use 'only' 120 GB in total.
PSA: “1 TB” yesDoesn'tAverage 1,000 GB usable space for games
Many people assume that buying a "1TB" drive means they will suddenly have 1,000GB of usable disk space in their computer (or console). Unfortunately that is not the case.
A 1TB drive in a computer provides only 931GB of usable disk space, due to historical confusion about what a "byte" or "terabyte" actually means. We know that 1terabytes equals 1,024gigabytes - but a 1TB drive actually advertises 931like itbytes. Notice it's "gibi" and not "giga"?
This is where the historical oddity comes in, and it's up to humans to look at everything to the power of ten, but computers look at things to the power of two.
I'll move on before I bore you, but it's worth repeating that: a 1TB driveon a PCwill only be 931 GBusable space. But the situation is even worse for consoles:
- A 1TB Xbox Series.
- PS5 is even worse, where 1TB PS5 only gives you 667 GB of usable space for games - because system files need the rest.
So you have to take that into account when you decide whether you should do thatbuy a good PC, or a bad console (just for fun!). If I was planning on installing a lot of console games, I would try upgrading my PS5 to 2TB of disk space. While a 1TB drive on a PCcurrentare sufficient due to the additional 264 GB of usable disk space.
