With each generation of video game consoles, games continue to get bigger and better. Worlds are teeming with detail and continue to stretch beyond the horizon. Character models are intricately detailed, and the sheer amount of quests and content for players to work their way through has crept up into the hundreds of hours to complete. So here, we’re looking at the 20 biggest games of all time, ranked by their install size.
A quick note here: to save this from being a very repetitive list of Call of Duty titles, we’ve bundled most of those together. Where possible, we’ve also explained why these games are so huge and on what platforms their install sizes are going to dominate your hard drive. Spoilers: it’s mainly PC!
This post was updated and is accurate as of August 8, 2024.
20. Borderlands 3 – 116 GB
Borderlands 3 is one of the most stylish and silky smooth first-person shooters you can get your hands on right now. Oh, and it’s also filled with toilet humor, which you’ll either love or hate. Personally, Claptrap’s musings never fail to give me a good ol’ chuckle.
The base game is already filled with content worth dozens of hours of gameplay. However, suppose you include the DLC expansions such as Psycho Krieg, Bounty of Blood, Fantastic Fustercluck, and Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot. In that case, you’ll easily be shooting over 110 GBs of storage space required, 116 to be exact. That’s a small price to pay if you are a true fan of this cell-shaded shooter action.
19. Gears 4 – 117 GB
Who’d have guessed that it’s not The Coalition’s most recent release in the Gears franchise that’d make this list, but Gears 4 instead? Gears 4 was the first entry to shift the focus away from Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad, instead looking to Kait Diaz, Del, and J.D. Fenix (Marcus’ son) to take the reigns of the series.
With the usual bombastic campaign, tactical multiplayer, and some major changes to the fan-favorite Horde mode, Gears 4 could keep COG heads entertained for hundreds of hours.
Alas, all of those chainsaw bayonets and Boomshots come at a cost to your hard drive space. Gears 4’s 117 GB file size is a whole 12 GB larger than Gears 5‘s on a Series X, but it does still look mighty good to this day!
18. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition – 120 GB
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is the remake of BioWare’s epic sci-fi RPG trilogy that fans had literally been begging for for the best part of a decade. Finally, in 2020, EA and BioWare caved, and we got to slip into the shoes of Commander Shepard once again as we captained the Normandy through the vast expanses of space.
With three massive RPGs in one convenient package, all wrapped up in 4K textures, improved lighting effects, audio tracks, and many more cosmetic improvements, it’s not all that surprising that Mass Effect: Legendary Edition weighs in at 120 GB. Just think, it could have been a whole lot worse had they tried to shove Andromeda in there, too.
17. Modern Warfare 2 (2022) – 121.3 GB
Oh, look! Despite Activision claiming that the Call of Duty development teams were working on condensing the annual installments down into much more palatable install sizes, 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 (that’s a lot of 2’s… 2) still manages to nab a spot here. Weighing in at a rather enormous 121.3 GB on Xbox Series X, the game’s still got some way to go for us not to be tutting every time we need to free up some space and see it hogging all that room on our storage.
That being said, there is a fair enough reason for all those sweet gigabytes being snaffled up. The game has a campaign sporting stunning 4K visuals, a multiplayer mode with an ever-increasing amount of maps, game modes, and weapons, and even a Spec Ops mode for some fun co-op times.
16. Horizon Forbidden West – 125 GB
Another massive console port to PC? Well, massive might be a weak word to describe the 125 GB requirement for the Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition. Still, it’s 25 gigs less than what it says on its Steam Store page.
Considering the number of AAA titles Sony is publishing, I’m surprised this is their only entry on this list. You might even say they are just really good at optimizing their games for storage space. I wish they would just cool it off with the console exclusives, though.
15. Starfield – 125 GB
When I first heard of Starfield and Bethesda’s promises, I thought it would be one of the biggest games ever, with an installation folder somewhere between 200 and 300 GB. The size of the universe they made us believe they were bringing would warrant that.
However, it was more of a fast travel simulator, much like some of the older Bethesda games. Nevertheless, all will agree that the beauty and the texturing of the Starfield world deserve its 125 gigs of storage space. After all, modding Skyrim to look that good took most of my friend’s half-terabyte SSD.
14. Rainbow Six: Siege – 131 GB
Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege may have been released back in 2015, but that hasn’t stopped it from remaining one of the most popular online games today.
The tactical shooter’s roster of Operators, maps, and features has grown exponentially since then, and with a whole host of texture packs that can be added to make the game look substantially prettier on PC, its install size can balloon up to the rather hefty 131 GB noted here.
You can bet your bottom dollar, too, that its file size will only continue to grow as Ubisoft continues to support it with more content to satiate fans’ appetite for tactical team-based antics.
13. Halo: The Master Chief Collection – 137 GB
Given the sheer amount of content, The Master Chief Collection packs in, its 137 GB file size is actually fairly palatable. You’re getting Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4, all with a number of visual improvements and multiplayer modes packed in for good measure.
If you’re running an Xbox Series X, you can experience Master Chief’s various adventures in up to 4K resolutions at 120 FPS. Reduced load times, adjustable FOV, and split-screen make it the complete package for any Halo fan. With the new Seasons bringing more cosmetics for multiplayer fans, the 126 GB is a worthwhile sacrifice for all that content.
12. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – 145.7 GB
Remakes and sequels are supposed to be bigger and better, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is packing way more than its cousins. It stands at an astounding 145.7 GB right now, which is sure to increase with future updates and DLCs.
It’s packed with content and has a brand-new story connected to the initial FFVII and the FFVII Remake. Time will tell, but it might very well become the best Final Fantasy game yet, surpassing even the original Final Fantasy VII that we all love so much.
11. Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition – 148 GB
Noctis and the lads made their way to PC with Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition back in 2019. The Windows Edition of the title included the base game, plus all four of its separate DLCs, enhanced visuals, and improved performance (as you’d expect from a PC port).
To be precise, it’s high-res 4K textures, HDR compatibility, and ultra-high graphics options. You’ll also get all of the DLC and bonus items, as well as a handful of refinements since the title’s original release on consoles.
All of those tasty 4K dishes you’ve been cooking up at camp take up some serious space on your system, with the Windows Edition taking up 148 GB. Better get a new hard drive!
10. Red Dead Redemption 2 – 150 GB
Arthur Morgan and Dutch Van der Linde are certainly not the fattest gunslingers in the Wild West, but Red Dead Redemption 2’s installation folder would have you believe that. At 150 GB, it easily makes the cut for one of the biggest games in history regarding install size.
But who cares? It’s one of my favorite games, and I’ve yet to meet a person who played it and wouldn’t say the same. The only thing that could dethrone it as Rockstar’s biggest game yet is the upcoming GTA 6. It would certainly be expected, as almost every Rockstar game so far has been bigger than the one before.
9. Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) – 150 GB
Asobo Studios’ Microsoft Flight Simulator was not only one of the best games to release in 2020 but also one of the biggest game installs of all time.
To get started in the game, you’re looking at a 150GB installation folder size, and that’s after you’ve downloaded a 1GB initial file to begin the hefty installation process. Any additional mods, aircraft, region packs, or airports that you have the option to install can push that file size up even more.
It might seem like a massive file size, but remember, Microsoft Flight Simulator allows you to fly around a high-quality rendition of Earth. An entire digital planet compressed down into 150G. Isn’t that crazy?
I’d be remiss not to mention all of the additional mods you can add to Microsoft Flight Simulator, too. Some of these use incredibly high-quality assets, which will only balloon that install size up further. So, you could say the sky’s the limit when it comes to how many gigabytes it’ll take up… anyone? No? We’ll see ourselves out!
8. Forspoken – 150 GB
While Forspoken’s gameplay may have divided critics and fans alike, one thing that pretty much everyone can agree on is just how beautiful the game looked, running on next-gen consoles and powerful PC components.
From Frey’s character model looks uncanny valley levels of realism through to even the most minute details of its fantasy world being brought to life and a plethora of particle effects exploding on your screen in combat, Luminous Productions packed a lot in here.
Of course, all those assets have to live somewhere, and so Forspoken takes up a sizable 150 GB on PC. Given it’s not the biggest game in terms of content on this list, that might come as a little surprising. But spend an hour or two in its world, and you’ll see where all that storage space has been spent!
7. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – 155 GB
It appears as though 2023 is the year of the chonky game, as following on from Forspoken’s January release this year was Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in April. With a multitude of planets to explore in typical Metroidvania style, jaw-droppingly detailed cutscenes, and a fantastically realized galaxy far, far away, Jedi: Survivor gives the game even an hour of your time, and it soon becomes clear why the game manages to steal 155 GB of storage on consoles and PCs alike.
However, as this is a single-player game that you can complete in about 50 hours, at least you know that you’ll eventually get that storage space back when you watch the credits roll.
6. Forza Horizon 5 – 156.6 GB
Playground Games’ open-world Forza Horizon games have always been our preferred titles in the series over Turn10’s more serious track-based racing sim Motorsport titles.
Just because the Forza Horizon series is more arcadey and less serious than its Motorsport counterpart doesn’t mean it’s slouching in terms of the content offered or visual fidelity.
Forza Horizon 5, in fact, is one of the prettiest games you can play on your Xbox Series X right now, with stunning native 4K visuals, silky smooth 60FPS, and the most detailed vehicle models in any racing game right now. You can even read the warning labels on the inside of doors!
The game was already giant enough, but the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions only bump that up further, to the point it’s now taking up 156.6 GB on the Series X. For the best racing game on the console, though, that’s a small price to pay.
5. Destiny 2 – 165 GB
Destiny 2 has grown quite a lot over its lifetime, becoming one of the biggest games ever, both by the number of players and install size. Currently, with the Final Shape DLC, you’re looking at 165 gigabytes of raw data on an Xbox Series X/S, and that number is only going to get bigger in the future.
However, when you consider the amazing sci-fi world this game offers, a small chunk of your SSD seems like a fair price. Starfield, for example, takes about as much storage as Destiny 2 but pales in comparison when it comes to features.
4. Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War – 175 GB
Activision’s Call of Duty series games’ install sizes have been slowly creeping up with each annual release. One of the latest from Treyarch Studios, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, continued this trend.
With a single-player campaign, multiplayer, Zombies, ray-tracing assets, and high-quality textures for the Series X, the game is currently hogging 175 GB on my system. It might seem like a ridiculous amount of space to take up, but that may be a little unfair.
You’re getting three different game modes, each with high-quality textures, all running on an engine that enables performance at a locked 60 FPS (or higher if you’ve got the display and the right HDMI cable).
We’d still rather have Activision and its rotation of Call of Duty developers find a way to compress that file size down a bit. When the games look and run as well as Cold War does on Series X, it feels a little bit more justified.
Editor Note: While we’re aware that a number of other Call of Duty games have file sizes surpassing 100 GB and, therefore, belong on this list, we thought we’d make it a more interesting read for you by surmising them all below:
- Infinite Warfare – 101 GB
- Black Ops 3 – 113 GB
- Modern Warfare (2019) – 175 GB (Campaign, Multiplayer, Spec Ops)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – 235 GB (Campaign, Multiplayer, Zombies, MW2 files, Warzone, HQ; this is all on a PS5)
3. Quantum Break – 178 GB
I love how Quantum Break’s still kicking it in this list five years after its initial release. A purely single-player experience, Quantum Break follows the story of Jack Joyce as he investigates a time travel experiment gone wrong.
The graphics and visual effects of this game were way ahead of their time, and that is largely reflected in its install size. Add to that the mechanics, physics, and the sheer number of levels, NPCs, and whatnot, and that space requirement is going even higher.
However, it was Quantum Break’s merging of video games and its TV episode-style live-action cutscenes that really padded out the file size. These episodes provided even more context to the story and would change depending on the actions made in-game, so many scenes had to be shot multiple times.
Combine all of the above, and you get one of the best blends of TV show narrative and video games ever. However, it comes in a rather chonky, 178 GB package on an Xbox Series X. The size of the installation is pretty much the same on PC as well.
2. Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond – 180 GB
The second on our list of games with the biggest install sizes is Medal of Honor Above and Beyond. It’s the definition of VR space inflation. All the high-detail textures, models, and game files ramp it up to have a massive 180GB installation size on PC. This is the minimum requirement, by the way, as some of the other entries have optional 4K textures and whatnot.
A really big SSD isn’t the only thing you’ll need for this Electronics Arts behemoth since the minimum specs also list an i7 9700K CPU and a GTX 1080. Somehow, the only reasonable requirement is the RAM, which is 16 gigs for both minimum and recommended builds.
1. ARK: Survival Evolved – 435 GB
ARK: Survival Evolved blows every other game’s install size out of the water in comparison. Due to several texture packs, expansions, and the developer’s peculiar file management scheme, its install size managed to reach a staggering 435 GB.
In essence, the developer has not created a common repository for all objects and assets. This results in the fact that all of the objects and models, including plants, clouds, water, and dinosaurs, are included in every DLC. You, therefore, have seven Dodo models instead of simply one. When you multiply that by hundreds of files, you have an install size for ARK that is, quite simply, absurd—435+ GB.
What’s more, no matter if you have bought all the DLCs or not, all their files will be downloaded to your PC. Also, if you decide to add any new mods, or god forbid devs decide to add another DLC, it’ll inflate even more. The first person to make a 1 TB installation of ARK wins!
Published: Aug 8, 2024 03:54 am