Since the arrival of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in late 2020, it feels like we've been talking about download sizes a lot more than we used to. A few years ago, it came as a huge surprise if a game surpassed the 100GB mark in terms of its file size, and now it's becoming pretty commonplace for a lot of AAA titles on the market.
And, we'll be honest, we sometimes avoid them simply because of their ridiculous sizes. Xbox Series S owners have to be particularly careful with this, as if they haven't invested in an Expansion Card and they're not lucky enough to have a 1TB version of the console, there's only around 400GB of storage to actually play with.
We talked about this a few weeks ago in a feature about Xbox Series X|S storage limits in 2024, where nearly half of all PX voters told us that their Series X internal storage was full, and 58% said the same for the Series S.
It's not just about storage, either. In this writer's experience, slow download speeds can be an absolute nightmare with 100GB+ games, especially when they're also pumping out big updates on a regular basis. We're certainly getting closer to a world where slow internet speeds aren't a thing anymore, but we're not there yet.
Of course, Xbox Cloud Gaming can reduce the need for massive downloads when you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member, but if severely slow downloads are your problem, there's a good chance you can't properly take advantage of xCloud anyway. It's a fantastic option for sure - but only if your internet can handle the load.
Anyway, we're using this opportunity to find out if you actively avoid Xbox games with massive download sizes these days. Sure, you might download the odd 100GB+ game now and again, but otherwise do you try and favour titles with more reasonable file sizes? Let us know in the polls below, and feel free to go into detail in the comments!
Do You Avoid Games With 100GB+ Download Sizes? (871 votes)
- All the time! I rarely download 100GB+ games
- I may get one or two, but otherwise I avoid them
- I just download what I want to play!
- I can't install too many of them, but I have a few
- Most of my games are 100GB+!
Do you actively avoid Xbox games with massive download sizes? Come and tell us!
Comments 35
I found myself dealing with shuffling games a lot, even before I got my Series S and Expansion Card... until xCloud came along. If a game is 50+ GB and on Game Pass, I'll only install it for local multiplayer. Otherwise, I'll choose 'Cloud Play' and keep my space safe.
No. I still have 2.1tb free between my internal SSD, 1tb expansion card and 16tb HDD. I'm very fussy about having all of my games installed.
I play what I want, but I also don't keep a huge backlog of games on my hard drive either (Series X). I typically only mess with a few games at any given time, so that helps too.
Yes. I get flack sometimes from the fps/graphics bros on NL but I will often buy a Switch version of a big game because it is a manageable size which means it will fit on my 1.5TB card and thus be easily accessible vs all the jenga I have to do on the twins. A game played is worth more to me than a game ignored. That also limits my day 1 purchases on the twins.
Does anyone truly stressed about this? It’s the game inside the art of playing next gen games
I used to be more picky about what I downloaded, avoiding stupidly big downloads if possible, but only because my internet was utter garbage. Since getting full fibre and changing to a wired connection, my download speeds sit between 900-950mbps so I now download whatever with reckless abandon.
File size doesn't factor into my decision of what to play.
Size alone isn’t a factor but it does take juggling. I was shocked to see that Harold Halibut was over 50 GB. And will be waiting to play it after I finish another large game.
I don't look at the download size until after I hit the download button. So while it's downloading, that's when I see it. If there's no room, I make room. I can delete a game I'm not playing. I don't play every game that's downloaded.
***** yes, I ***** actively avoid them
I can't really say since I have yet to be interested in any games that also happen to be particularly large, but owning a Series S with no external HD, it's kind of inevitable.
If it’s a game I’m Not overly interested in I tend to
Not download it, anything else I just download
No, my Series X has plenty of space. I never play more than 2 games at a time anyway.
I just have a metric ton of external HDDs and transfer games over when I want to play them. Don't leave them hooked up because they eventually burn out if you do that.
I have a couple of Expansion Cards and a large HDD storage so I don't really look at Download sizes, I download what I want to play and will move stuff around or plug in a different Storage card if there is 'no room' on either internal SSD or the plugged in Card. Sometimes its also a good reminder to move/delete games i've finished and/or don't own (Game Pass - reminds me to delete B4B as that's leaving/left)
Point is, I am not a person worried about download sizes - other than how long it takes to download and install before I can actually 'play' - and I always wait until it's finished, not when it says it's 'ready' to open...
If it's on GP Cloud, I'll certainly be more inclined to try larger file size games I wouldn't have bought/downloaded anyway there first than spend hours downloading to decide it really wasn't 'for me'. But really file size isn't the consideration, its more the game itself - without GP, I maybe wouldn't have bought at all...
I have a Series S. If i see 100+GB, i either download, beat the story and uninstall or never touch.
I share my Series S with someone else and the console now has a BUNCH of games with big install sizes, so yeah, I do avoid downloading 100+ GB games (since there isn’t enough space now), not to mention a lot of modern releases don’t interest me, at least not yet. Sometimes games that aren’t even 100+ GB take long to download, and it was even like that before a ton of bigger games were installed on my console. Most of the games I own are only 1+ GB, but I can’t exactly download them now…
Well Yes and No. For X1 games that don't have a series version they will run on a usb drive no problem. For Xbox series or X1/series enhanced games they will only run on the external or an expansion card so those games need to be managed.
I certainly do. There's only so much space to go round
I have a 5 TB external drive and a Gamepass sub. You could guess where the wind is blowing.
Most are 360 and OG games, so they dont take up too much space
I used to be conscious of file size due to limited space on the S. Since getting an expansion card, I am less concerned, but I do try to remove games after playing to keep it from becoming a problem again. Starfield is what pushed me to getting the card, speaking of large file sizes
@AlwaysPlaying Yea it’s no big deal. Perhaps to those whom use gamepass and want to try everything they see like when at a candy store. I only install physical games that I am presently playing on my XSX. Which is only 1-3 at a time. Same for my PS5. It’s not a big deal.
There is only so much ssd space... So...
Well I tend to only have a few games at a time downloaded anyway as I used to find I would download games and they would sit there for months until I eventually just deleted them anyway and speed is never an issue for me as I have a 1GB download speed.
@Robocrop_Duster Don't leave external HDD hooked up?
First heard of this. That's really good tip. Never thought that until now. Wish expansion cards were not ridiculously priced. I'd buy couple more.
I come from a day when we used to have binders full of 5.25 floppy disks. Downloading a 5 MB file meant tying up your phone line for three hours.
Today, I have about 30 TB of storage spread over several hard drives on my PC and a 1 TB expansion card with a 5 TB external hooked up to my Xbox. I pay for fiber and can download a 100 GB file in about an hour. Sometimes less.
I will download any damn thing I can get my hands on. It's wonderful.
Storage space is probably the worst part of this generation of consoles for both Sony and Microsoft.
It was a consideration yes, as I won't pay the silly prices for Xbox expansion cards. Not a problem now as I'm not playing Xbox, and when I do it will only be for one or two titles.
As I can get 3rd party storage expansion on PS5 I've gotten a 2TB one on the main (£120), and 1tb (£80) on on the secondary.
If we were using the series X mor,e I'd probably buy one anyway, but it does annoy me that the price is so high.
@GuyinPA75 Yes I left a External HDD plugged in and it burnt itself out in about 6 months loosing all the games I had on it. Now using it just a temp storage, I plug it in when I need to transfer a game and then unplug it. Haven't had one fail on me yet. They're usually cheaper than the expansion cards the series xbox offer.
No. I do not avoid them if I want to play them. I have yet to have an issue with space because I tend to only keep 6 games installed at the same time.
I don't think there's any reason to actively avoid them. I just play whatever. It's annoying to not be able to have the same scope of selection I used to but I've also been focusing more on specific games nowadays. On my 360 I had basically every game I owned downloaded to the console now I only have about a tenth of the games I own downloaded. I'm not paying the absolute highway robbery for cloud gaming either.
I download what I buy or want to play. Size isn’t really an issue. Have a 16TB external HD for Xbox One and Series X/S games and an 4TB external I use for BC games from 360 and OG Xbox. I just transfer games back and forth to the internal SSD as need be.
If i see a 100+gb i found that excessive often time it don't even means the game will be better or look better it's a ba compression and lazy one from devs often time. I don't download big games often i dl fallot 76 who was 99gb recently that one was huge but yea i avoid them if i can.
I bought a 1TB expansion card around a year into owning a Series X, and I've never looked back since. I rarely think about these things now.
I also think your internet speeds are a major factor for this kind of thing. You can play pretty fast and loose if you have good download speeds, but if you're not in that position, I can see how managing your installed games requires more strategy.
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