Without a doubt, we've been very happy with the Xbox Series S since it launched back in 2020, but if there's one thing we could pinpoint that we're not so keen on, it's the low internal storage out of the box, clocking in at just 512GB.
If we're talking usable storage, it's actually a lot lower than that, sitting at under 400GB out of the box, which in some cases is only enough to hold around five or six games. Obviously, it all depends on what you're playing.
A game like Call of Duty: Warzone is known for having a gigantic file size, and even first-party titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection will prove demanding on your storage space. Of course, the benefit of Xbox Cloud Gaming means you don't necessarily need to keep everything installed at once, but it requires a decent internet connection.
You've got some options when it comes to external storage at least. You can plug any old USB HDD or SSD into your Xbox Series S to add extra space, but the downside is you can only play Xbox One or older titles off of these β to play an "Optimised for Series S" game, it has to be installed on either the internal drive or a Seagate storage card.
And the Seagate cards are still quite expensive for the moment. The cheapest 512GB variant will set you back $139.99 USD at retail, which definitely isn't cheap, but might prove very extremely useful in the long run for your storage space.
So, with all that in mind, we're interested to know how well you're managing your storage space on Xbox Series S in 2022, and whether you've found the low internal space to be a hinderance as of yet. Let us know!
How's your Xbox Series S storage looking in 2022? Tell us down in the comments below.
Comments 51
Love the console, I donβt like the small storage. I have a portable USB, but have not bought an SSD since we never got cheaper options or 3rd party as had been expected. I will eventually upgrade the amount of SSD storage like I did with my Series X, but factory expansions are still way too expensive. I could upgrade my PS5 by 2 TB for the same price as 1TB on Xbox.
Yeah it did quickly become an issue. It was a toss up between either ordering an external hard drive or selling it and using the funds towards a Series X
I opted for the latter
It's really not much of an issue for me. I play a game and delete it and don't have too many on the go at once. I can see how others would have a problem if, as you say, they play Warzone (which should never be the size it is).
I bought the 1TB Seagate storage card.
Fine. I pretty much only install games that I am either currently playing or will play after finishing current game played (if I get a bunch of games as gifts). Once I finish said game, I delete it and move on to next game on the drive.
Once I complete the queue, I find new game to play.
I do the same thing on PS5.
364gb is unacceptable for 2022. I just bought the 1TB Seagate Expansion Card 2 months after buying the console and now it's way better and much more manageable, now i can go the full generation without worrying about storage. That card really it's an awesome purchase
I run a 320GB USB 3.0 HDD alongside it which stores all the XBO games. There's roughly space for 5 or 6 Xbox Series games on the XSS, which isn't great, but it just about does enough for me. I'm not a huge gamer.
When I mainly used my series s, it filled up quick with gamepass games, upgraded games, fpsboosted games, etc. Got an expansion card, and when I got a series x, the move of all my games and apps, from series s to x, was seamless. To each, their own.
the internal size is fine to run the games im playing and got a 5tb external usb drive thats perfectly fine for storage
I only play a couple games at any given time and when I finish I just delete. HDD space is very rarely an issue for me.
Vote seems skewed. Where the I have a Series X option? Iβd expect most enthusiast gamers here, though not all by a long shot, to go for that model
It's kind of an unfair question. Who WOULDN'T like to have unlimited storage?
I didn't vote in the poll because I'm an outside case but for me the S is a streaming-box for handheld play, and in that role it's working great and I have several things installed on it (FF15, FF13, AI Som, Yakuza 0, Zero Escape/Nonary. It's working fine for that. On my X I have the 1TB card and do run out of space, but not enough so to justify buying the 2TB card, as 1+1TB seems enough to make rotation and management sufficient. Never ideal, but sufficient. Assuming the SSDs don't wear down with such use depending on the NAND in use.
It's a much bigger problem for me on PS5 where I don't have an expansion drive. The sub-1tb capacity hits roadblocks and forces me to delete and re-download regularly. But I don't use it as my 3rd party machine, so I can't really justify adding the drive, either.
I picked up the 1GB storage card for mine. Re-downloading games is a drag.
I had always planned to pick one up regardless as the Series S was a stopgap for me until I got my Series X
More is of course better but hasn't really been a big deal for us. Really only 2 games stay on there (FH5 and MLB 22) everything else is in and out for the most part. Plus cloud streaming works pretty flawlessly for us so thankfully we wont have to spring for any expansion anytime soon!
I just have an external drive that I put an game that doesnβt require the faster storage. To find out if it requires the faster storage you just try and move it and if it says something then it wonβt play off of it, but any pre series games work and surprisingly a few series enabled games work as well. For example master chief collection works off of the external drive
Got an external 500 GB hard drive hooked up for the non-Series optimized titles and otherwise haven't had any issues! I regularly delete larger games that I don't use to ensure I have space for Game Pass curios.
I have to shuffle games constantly and I'm considering bigger external storage. One thing I would 'like' is optional game files and not 'HAVE TO' have Series optimized games on the internal or storage card.
I delete my games when I'm done and I don't play multiplayer games so it isn't a problem for me really. But I get for people with slow internet or who are playing multiple games it can be a problem
@themightyant well if the series x was readily available I might have gotten one. At launch I only got a series s and that is still working fine for me, not many games which underperform on a series s compared to x which I play. Later on when it's readily available I might get the x and move the s to my office room or bedroom, but as long as I'm satisfied with the s I only feel like I'm taking someone else's x who really wants it if I would buy one now.
I have had a series S as my main console for a little over a year. I haven't purchased any extra storage options. When I'm done with a game I simply uninstall it and move on to the next game I want to play. I currently have quite a few 360 games (the entire skate trilogy, saints row 2 etc) then a few series s/X games like sniper elite 5, far cry 6, dying light 2 and a few more I don't remember. The internal storage personally is enough for myself. I'll probably eventually upgrade to a series X a year or 2 down the line so I won't buy the official seagate card.
I can't imagine the issues they're having. 1tb was barely enough for the One.
I thought I'd have problems but I'm actually doing ok. I do have a 512gb USB SSD but barely use that either. My biggest problem was rewards quests, so downloading extra games I have no intention to keep, playing then and forgetting to uninstall them once it popped. Since xcloud went live here a few weeks back that issues gone away as I just boot up the games that way to make them pop. I can see it being an issue eventually but hopefully the promised optimizations if using an SSD when developing for one from the outset start to materialize to help us out a bit.
The expansion is too expensive to justify it, I'd just upgrade to Series X for that price.
I already got an external expansion
I'm often going from place to place so the small size has become a necessity for me. Storage though? It's kind of a pain but it doesn't really bother me much. Plus Xbox Cloud Streaming has been amazing lately and I've even been able to play some games from the cloud instead of just downloading them. Despite it's many flaws I still love the console and I plan to just stick with it this generation.
Bought a 1tb SSD, and itβs fast enough to move games.
I would love to be able to select the Xbox One X version for my Smart Delivery compatible titles, being able to boot right off my USB HDD would be great.
Use a standard external hard drive 1TB. Transfer over the game I am playing. We Can only play one game at a time anyway! Transfer time is fine with me
I have a Series X and my SSD is always full. Mostly thanks to Game Pass. It's annoying having to constantly delete games to make room for others. On the other hand, it gives me a reason to finish some games faster than I sometimes wouldn't... I use my 8TB Seagate drive for OG Xbox, 360, & Xbox One games, which is only halfway full. I'll upgrade to the 2TB SSD around Black Friday. I just need to hold off until then...
Last year I added a 1TB M.2 storage to my PS5 but I knew it would fill up quick, so I also bought a 5TB external drive to transfer PS5 games I've finished over to it. And I have another 5TB external drive for my PS4 games.
My Switch OLED & ACNH Switch systems both have 1TB micro sd cards with a little over 200gb free. And my other Switch/Lite Systems only have 400gb sd cards so of course they have been full. I've spent so much money on storage this gen, it's ridiculous. But gaming isn't a cheap hobby lol...
Filled up my Series S quickly with games and also have a HDD for Xbox One and other games. I decided to hold off on stroage expansion I wil be picking up a Series X soon.
Cloud gaming helps a lot with storage issues. Now I don't need MS Flight Simulator locally installed using 100+ GB of storage. That said, I have bought an external storage already and now memory is not an issue in my Series S.
I find it amusing and pathetic you can buy 1G removable storage for really price of the Series S itself.
@GuyinPA75 1G sounds like a tiny amount!
I have a external hard drive because of the storage issue as well. But, when i install the games on the external harddrive, i kno i cant play them, but i can clear space on the series s and then transfer over to system. Doesnt take too long doing it tht way
I already had to buy one for my Series X. My games are few but huge, the kids games are small but many. It was a constant uninstall/reinstall battle. But now weβre living the dream. Got it at $270ish which wasnβt too bad.
@Darylb88 Think you missed the sarcasm.
But sarcasm aside, you can't say I'm wrong with point being made.
WD 10 tb external drive with improved rpm with gamepass you can store anywhere from 200 to 300 games...and get crazy with it and yes some games you will need to transfer inorder to play...but goddammit having that many games make you feel like a video game god
My gaming time is limited every week so what I do is have a few games at a time installed on my S that I am playing. When I am done with the game I delete it and move on. The only games that I keep active on my xbox is diablo 2 and Mortal Kombat 11, the rest are all up for potential deletion.
Also, my internet is not capped so I have unlimited GB every month (granted its not that fast as I live in China) so downloading, deleting and redownloading games is not an issue
bought a 1TB expansion card with it and had a 4TB HDD i use to store old an backed up X/S games on. so i wasn't having any issues.
all thats migrated to my XSX now though.
Never affected me as I brought the 1tb ssd expansion, the official one that slots in the back. Yeah was very expensive but had series s over a year now and never had an issue with storage, and IF I go series x (and that's a big IF) it will obviously work with that aswel. Also the cost of the SSD expansion over the life span of the console generation makes it a decent investment.
I have an external 2TB which is great to run some games off but I do forget I move series X optimismed games over to the internal HD at times.
Bought it after I have a ps5, really liking it but sold it after 1 or 2 month, there's no way I can use this gamepass console with that amount of storage lol. The (proprietary) expansion is really expensive so I bought series x instead, now series x is my main console this gen π
I wish microsoft release a white, discless series x though. I like the white colour of series s and it's gamepad so much that I bought the white gamepad for my series x.
I bought an expansion card of 512gb from seagate and now itβs just fine , at least I can keep flight simulator and forza horizon 5 on my console.
got two seagate 4tb external drives, which move between our series s series x and the one x, cost about 80 euro's a piece in a sale , yeah you have to juggle games from external to internal, which takes some time but hey 8tb for less than the price of one tb stick
@dsar9012 not the case on my country, here Series S is the way to go. I bought my Series S for 350 dollars and 200 more for the expansion. While the Series X costs twice as much here at 1000 dollars or more. It's the same with the PS5.
I got a Series X and still needed a Seagate 1TB card. Any Series S owners who got by without one are better men/women than I.
I love Xbox, but this aspect makes me angry. On my old One X, with a 2TB external HD, I never had space problems. On the Series X, with the same external HD (used for all old gen games), managing internal disk space quickly became a losing battle. I'm constantly removing something whenever I want to play something new. It's impossible to keep my favorite games always installed. And I refuse to buy the Seagate solution at this absolutely ridiculous price. I don't envy whoever owns the Series S, with half the disk space, I can imagine their pain.
I had this issue all the time and now upgraded with an external 5tb hard drive since I don't have that much series only x games
I own a X and even that one has not enough space... The seagate is too expensive for my taste so for now i bought a 1 Tb HDD where I put all games not exclusive to series systems but I have pretty much both drives full atm
I have a 2TB Western Digital external hdd that I use from my xb1 days. I have about 30 games installed on it. The older ones I can play from the external, newer games I have to copy to the internal ssd which goes very fast. A 100GB game file copies to the ssd in about 20min on average. I constantly have to remove a game from internal to external whenever I need to install a new game. I currently hsve MS Flight Simulator installed internally which takes up iver 100GB by itself, hence frequent removal of games from my ssd is a common thing. πββοΈπββοΈπββοΈ
I own both a Series S in my home office and a Series X in my living room. I purchased two of the 1TB Seagate SSD for each console. I was already running out of room after a month of owning each console.
@dsar9012 save money how? Series S is 350 dollars, 550 with the expansion on my country. Series X is 900 dollars or more, the PS5 is like 1000 or more. Not every country has MSRP, the Series S is an awesome pickup on third world countries.
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