Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Owners, How's Your Storage Looking In 2023?

I'm currently at 150gb free with 20 games installed, for transparency 5 of them are Sonic 1 to Mania so they probably take a gig between them.

I only tend to keep games installed until I've played them then get rid unless it's something I know I'll keep playing (Arkham Knight) or my daughter is on with them cos she takes ages playing anything with a story - Bugsnax - or there stuff she always plays like Fall Guys

I think I’m at about 80% but I’m considering doing a purge of stuff I’ve not played or played a whole ago.

I have maybe 5 good chunker games and the rest are indie titles with a couple AA titles thrown in for good measure.

I’m happy to delete and redownload something. Rocket League probably won’t get a reinstall any time soon but it always catches me out how big it is. I don’t know why I feel 25 GB is unjustifiable.

Just fine with storage…now ask about the piece of ***** disc drive that came with the Series X.

@rtr0GMR1
Why would anyone ask about Disc Drives? Digital media has completely taken over.

I have the Xbox Series S, with an external 1 tb hard drive (for non-optimized games) and the 1 tb Sandisk Expansion Card. Full on all of them lol

I was in the 90%+ range, but cleared out a few games on the weekend to make more room. With the cost of the expansion cards I imagine I'll be deleting off old games rather than buy more storage space.

@ZuneTattooGuy it prolly broke lol

I'm just going say when an expansion card costs as much as console..... That's too damn much!

My Series X is always riding the 95% range which sucks.

Sony gets a lot of flak for their decisions this gen (and deservedly so), but this is one area where they got it right. I upgraded my PS5 with another 1TB SSD (so close to 2TB total) for $80. I’m not even bothering to upgrade my Series X until these prices come down.

I don’t play MP or live service games that need to stay on the hard drive forever. When I finish a game I delete it unless there’s upcoming DLCs. And I only play one game at a time. That helps a lot to keep storage space

@EvenStephen7
There is no way you got 1 tb of proper SSD and a heatsink for $80, unless its a fake or you stole it lol

@Chaotic_Goat
I have four daughters and a Wife, they all have games they like to play too. I also like to have my high stress games, and my calm relaxing games

@ZuneTattooGuy I actually got the WD BLACK 1TB SN850 for $69 from my local walmart. Although it was on clearance. So I know the deals are out there if you look for them.

Mine was full on launch day .

@ZuneTattooGuy There's a lot of cheaper brands like ADATA offering gen 4 SSDs with appropriate speeds for PS5 in that $80 price range, typically a sale price, but they're out there. Heck, the 1tb 980 Pro I put in my PC only cost me $100 on sale, heatsink and all.

I keep it at about 50-60% on both the internal and expansion card. Right now that's 55 games, not including the several pre-ordered or pre-installed. I have fast internet and high data cap, never felt the need to keep every game I've ever purchased dled at once. When I finish a game I usually uninstall, there's always new stuff coming to game pass to make room for.

I have a 1 TB external SSD for games I want to transfer fast if I wanna play and want to get them off internal storage for a bit. I also have a 4 TB for backwards compatible games and ones I don't play as often.

I always have mine floating around the 75% mark. Forza Horizon 5 is the heaviest on there at the moment but I can’t let it go just yet.

I had a 5tb External HDD for my XB1X so I 'made' do with this when I bought my Series X. I picked up a 1TB expansion card when these were on sale and then picked up a 2TB expansion on sale (both combined were 'less' than a 2TB RRP) so I'm ok on storage right now...

I always have plenty of storage. No external device either, that's just a marketing gimmick. I can only play one game at a time, so I only have one game downloaded at a time. What a crazy concept. Lol.

@ZuneTattooGuy yeah, that’s a much different reality than mine. I can’t even imagine how you manage that much games tbh

@ZuneTattooGuy There's literally a 1TB Samsung SSD for PS5 on Amazon right now for $89.99........

They're not that expensive and they also go on sale frequently.

@rtr0GMR1 what is the issue? I use it all the time and never had a problem with it.

Internal + 1TB, generally always maxed out, but comfortable with that space, I think it's enough space to easily be able to prune anything I'm unlikely to play. I'd love more space, but while 1TB is far from enough, 2TB total seems to be very manageable for even heavy use with large libraries to have most of anything you're reasonably likely to touch installed at once.

Have the 1TB SSD & 4TB for the OG Xbox, Xbox 360 & Xbox One games. Game Pass & owned games is really eating my SSD alive. Updates can take some serious GB’s. Have been looking for another 1TB SSD but they are too expensive.

85.6% on Series S, with 1 TB, I have 67 games currently installed on my Xbox, plenty of games I can delete if needed. Very glad I got the extra storage within a year of getting the Xbox ( used reward points + cheap Eneba credit so didn't feel like it was a rip off ) otherwise I would be constantly deleting things

My internal storage has less than 20Gb free. The 1tb storage has about 200Gb free and I have a HDD 1tb with backward compatability games that should be at about 400gb free. Right now I have pretty much everything I own and want installed but until I bought the ssd expansion a few months ago I was uninstalling very frequently

I've been maxed out for a year with 1tb expanded slot and 4tb external for all XB1 and 360. The part that kills me is the forced Series uprades. There is usually no option to keep the game on external, with a small couple of exceptions.

I have around 500Gb free. I don’t keep any games I’ve finished or don’t play on the system.

It's complicated... I made a screenshot. Or you can calculate:

All storage 6.6 TB free (65.0%).

https://imgur.com/a/gF9FJps

Space has never really been an issue. I usually play single player games so I delete as I go. I usually have the game I'm playing and 1 or 2 games that I plan to play next ready to go.

I keep a hdd set up with a bunch of multiplayer games ready to transfer for when ibplay with friends.

However, PC gamepass and cloud have been slowly taking over for me.

@themightyant
Don't get me wrong I am not defending the Seagate Expansion Card pricing. However I do like buying official products so that if something goes sideways I can hold Microsoft and Seagate responsible

@EvenStephen7
Cool I can buy expansion for my PS5 I never turn on. I can't wait to use some of its expanded storage for Starfield...

@SplooshDmg
Now you only have to buy multiple $70 titles to fill all that storage, it's a shame Sony doesn't have enough money in the bank to launch a competitive service like Game Pass.

Im fine ive got a 5tb external usb drive holding tons of games and i just move the games im currently playing onto internal easy job done

My Series X is doing fine memory wise. 8TB external drive for OG Xbox, 360, & Xbox One games and a 2TB Seagate card for Series X/S games. Same with my PS5. 8TB external drive for PS4 games and a 2TB m.2 for PS5 games. Plus a few extra 5TB external drives from the previous gen.

Internal storage currently at 79%
External storage (10GB HDD) 87%

My Series S is at 86%

I don't have an expansion card, so far the HDD is doing its job, I move stuff around as I am going to play it.

I do wonder, I know Smart Delivery claims to deliver only the specific build your console needs... if I had an expansion card and moved it from my Series X to my Series S, would the stored game work or would it be re-downloaded to get the Series S optimized version? Because that is the main reason I ever considered these expansion cards, being able to move games from one device to the other without redownloading.

Edit:
The way I work is that I download absolutely everything I buy (and I buy a LOT through sales) to my external hard drive.
Game Pass games, I sometimes keep them installed if it's something I feel I may end up buying down the line, but more often than not I eventually uninstall.

I tend to have several stuff installed on my internal storage, either stuff I plan to play soon, now, or accidentally auto-installed in there when I bought it.

My Series S has basically every game that is a 2D or low-fi game installed, plus potentially whatever I am playing most recently on the Series X (so I can jump rooms.)

Series S with 70% full here, but I install and delete games every day. I get 200mbs download any time of day here, and with internet like that, storage space is not important.

I bought a 10TB external drive so doing okay for now, although some games can only work on the X’s drive, which is annoying…

@ZuneTattooGuy Lucky for me, there's no problem with my bank account and I can just play whatever I want, whenever I feel like it because I don't care if it's in a subscription service.

@SplooshDmg
Ok have fun with all the great upcoming exclusives for the Playstation 5 like ummmm Final Fantasy XVI and ummmm eventually Spiderman 2

Current at 98.8% but I have a bunch of games that I've started playing and haven't touched in a while and some I haven't played once yet lol. I just make room as needed, unlimited internet, so it's really not an issue... just a messy room but a console. Quantum Break was almost 90GB so that took a chunk.

@ZuneTattooGuy Eww. Spiderman 2? You don't have to insult me. Geez.

Although my drive is mostly full on my series x, it is not really a problem since I have very fast internet so redownloading is mostly a matter of minutes or max. 40 min for the really huge ones.

I very quickly filled up my Series X as I went a bit overboard when I first got the console and bought loads of games. I was then ‘forced’ to buy a Seagate expansion card as I bought a game that needed more space than what was left. I opted for the 2TB Seagate option as I very much doubt I’ll buy another console for many years to come (my last console was a PS2…) and thought it would solve my storage issue… for a while anyway!

I've swithered about getting an expansion card at times but given that I've got Gigabit broadband and can download games in very little time, it's just never been a priority.

@SplooshDmg
Ok please tell me some other wonderful Playstation exclusives coming anytime soon? Seriously my PS5 can't keep collecting dust

@ZuneTattooGuy I really have no idea what you are going on about. If you paid attention, you'd notice that I loaded a 980 Pro SSD into my PC. I don't have anything to report back on these wonderful, luxurious PS5 exclusives, because I don't give a rats arse about Sony 1st party games, and Square Enix is mostly a dumpster fire. If we get lucky FFXVI and VII Rebirth wont suck, because SE is on a pretty profound losing streak right now.

I seem to be fine with a 1TB expansion this gen. I got two 2TB SSD's on my old One X (about 5TB total combined with internal storage) and that was great for having a massive library of classics installed and available whenever. That said, when it comes to current gen consoles, now that I got that classic library out of the way, I just want to have a good list of current gen games, with a wide variety, without it becoming overwhelming.

I have found over the years how there is such a concept as having too much to choose from, as it can be overwhelming going through my 300+ games on my One X if I don't have something specific in mind. Even on my PS4, with it's 2TB external drive and 150+ games, it can get overwhelming. With 2TB combined, on modern consoles, that gives me about 45 - 50+ games depending upon what I have installed, and that seems about perfect for having anything I'd want without having too many games I am not playing.

Since a current gen console is basically a latest focus and new game rotation platform, I want there to be some incentive to focus on a more select variety, which keeps me focused on some specific titles.

I only play a handful of games at a time, like maybe 3 at most, so I’m in no danger of filling up the drive as I just delete games when done.

I used to think I needed an expansion card, but then I think I was just being greedy. I can't be playing more than 15 games at a time, and with modern download speeds, I can easily download the games I want to start playing when I want to play them.

Think of it as Resident Evil's inventory management 😂. It's always hard to manage what to take with you and leave in the storage, but when you set out on the level, you just make it work! 😁

A decent fast external ssd will give 4tb of space for the same cost as the 1tb expansion card.

It only takes a minute or two to transfer games to and from the internal drive when you want to play them and xbox one games can be played straight from the ssd.

I don't see why anyone would pay almost the cost of the xbox itself to buy a 2tb drive. You might aswell buy a digital ps5 and keep some games on that.

I’m at 22% on my Series X, which is a lot more than average since I’ve installed that huge Halo 6 games package. I usually don’t have more than 2 games at a time installed; one I’m playing at that moment and a backup for when I’m done with it. I never play 2 games at the same time anyway, so the internal storage is way more than I’ll ever use.

I have zero extra space and hate that I have to manage space. It takes time away from my life and from gaming.

I wish there were much larger external drives available for all consoles. For XB, I need about 33TB for all of my games. So, I would have to buy two 18 TB drives to get everything on. Well, that isn't so bad... But, they are F---ing slow as hell when you get a drive beyond 12 TBs... And 8 TB SSDs are ridiculously priced.

Then, there is the XB itself. I did manage to have 24 TBs at one time with over 2,500 games installed. LOL. Everytime I booted my console and went to my apps/games, it takes for freakin' ever for the game tiles to load, and quite often it would crash my XB.

I just gave up and currently run with about 8 TB between SSD and NVMe cards and about 120 Games. It really stinks as far as I am concerned.

LOL #FirstWorldProblems.

First problem is I have to buy a number of

I keep saying this since the launch of the new generation consoles "We need at least 2 TB storage..."
Not sure if "PS5 Pro" or "Newer version of Xbox Series X" may (finally) bring it, but world needs it (badly) nonetheless...

It's funny. I bought the Series S and a 1tb card thinking I would fill it with games. Which I did in the beginning. But now I only keep Halo Infinite installed and one more game. Finish that game before I install a new one. Oh, and I have completely stopped buying games (I only bought 6 in total). I only use Xbox for GPU.

I only play about one or 2 games at a time so don't need a load installed at once. Beat a game, uninstall. Move on. No need for extra memory.

Bought the Series S and one month later the 1TB expansion card, it's great, now that's going to last me for the entire generation. I have 1.2TB total nd 200GB free

Constantly in the 90+% range with only 3 or 4 games at a time. Really wish the expansion cards were cheaper

Always at 90% thanks to a few big games, been that way for years.

@blockfight that's been me since you could install games on the 360. I have at max 3 games installed at a time, and one is usually a preload from game pass. I play 1 game at a time, uninstall, and move on. Have never needed even the full 500gb much less 1TB.

Storage is really not an issue for me, a 80GB game takes 10/15mins to download on my internet. I usually like to keep 100 to 200GB free, so at any time I have a few big games downloaded and lots of smaller ones.

If a large game is in my backlog but I know I won’t play it for a while and need the space I add them to a pin list and I’ll download it again when/if I decide to play it.

I think storage only really becomes a problem if your connection is a bit slow or if you are one of those people who feels the need to always keep everything downloaded even if you don’t play the games anymore.

I'm 24% full, but to be fair, I have an expansion card AND an external hard drive. I've had the hard drive for a while, and it's nice to be able to put non series x/s games on it and play them, and it only takes minutes to transfer other games between the system and the hard drive if I store them there. I also make a habit of cleaning out space on games I have either completed or no longer play. With proper organization I rarely run out of room, have multiple games to choose from, and the space to download anything that comes to gamepass that looks interesting.

Have 92%, have MW2 on it, among other things, which is already quite large and FIFA

Biggest limitation for the current Series X/S is the Propriety SSD. (Make it Generic with Stated Minimum Specs and let the prices plumet)
Using a 4GB HDD, for all my old Xbox/360/One games and then juggling my X/S games putting the least played ones on HDD. I made the long term view my Xbox games are all digital.

I went crazy overboard on buying additional storage for my Xbox back in 2021. So I have a 1TB Seagate expansion card, a 500GB SATA SSD, and a behemoth 4TB HDD. That has allowed me to download half of Game Pass (194 games currently) to my console and I still have about half a terabyte available on the HDD!