PC Games Now Need Twice the Storage They Did in 2016
- In 2016, Far Cry Primal asked for 20 GB of free space on PC.
- We pulled the storage requirement from the Steam store page of 46 big-budget PC games released between 2016 and 2025, including every NBA 2K from 2K17 to 2K26.
- The clearest change is how often a game now crosses 100 GB.
In 2016, Far Cry Primal asked for 20 GB of free space on PC. Far Cry 6, released five years later, asks for 170 GB on its current Steam page. That is more than eight times as much for a game in the same series, and it is not an isolated case.
We pulled the storage requirement from the Steam store page of 46 big-budget PC games released between 2016 and 2025, including every NBA 2K from 2K17 to 2K26. The typical game in our sample from 2016 and 2017 asks for 52.5 GB. The typical game from 2024 and 2025 asks for 105 GB, twice as much.
The 100 GB line
The clearest change is how often a game now crosses 100 GB. None of the 12 games in our sample from 2016 and 2017 asked for that much. Of the 10 games from 2024 and 2025, seven do: NBA 2K25, NBA 2K26, Final Fantasy XVI, Black Myth: Wukong, Tekken 8, Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Doom: The Dark Ages.
The biggest games in the whole sample both ask for 170 GB. Final Fantasy XVI needs that much on PC, and so does Far Cry 6. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (160 GB), Red Dead Redemption 2 (150 GB), NBA 2K24 and NBA 2K25 (150 GB each) and Mortal Kombat 1 (140 GB) are not far behind.
How each series has grown
Comparing games within the same series is the fairest test, because it holds the genre and the studio roughly steady. In all 12 series we tracked, the newest game asks for more space than the first one in our window, although in two of them the rise is small.
| Series | Earliest game in our sample | Latest game | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Far Cry | Primal (2016): 20 GB | Far Cry 6 (2021): 170 GB | 8.5x |
| Total War: Warhammer | Warhammer (2016): 35 GB | Warhammer III (2022): 120 GB | 3.4x |
| Assassin’s Creed | Origins (2017): 42 GB | Shadows (2025): 115 GB | 2.7x |
| Doom | Doom (2016): 55 GB | The Dark Ages (2025): 100 GB | 1.8x |
| Final Fantasy | XV Windows Edition (2018): 100 GB | XVI (2024): 170 GB | 1.7x |
| Tekken | Tekken 7 (2017): 60 GB | Tekken 8 (2024): 100 GB | 1.7x |
| NBA 2K | NBA 2K17 (2016): 70 GB | NBA 2K26 (2025): 110 GB | 1.6x |
| Monster Hunter | World (2018): 52 GB | Wilds (2025): 75 GB | 1.4x |
| Forza Horizon | Forza Horizon 4 (2018): 80 GB | Forza Horizon 5 (2021): 110 GB | 1.4x |
| Call of Duty | Infinite Warfare (2016): 70 GB | WWII (2017): 90 GB | 1.3x |
| Civilization | Civilization VI (2016): 17 GB | Civilization VII (2025): 20 GB | 1.2x |
| Battlefield | Battlefield 1 (2016): 50 GB | Battlefield 6 (2025): 55 GB | 1.1x |
NBA 2K is the best long run, because 2K has released one every year. Its requirement held at 70 GB for 2K17 and 2K18, rose to 80 GB, then 110 GB from NBA 2K21, and peaked at 150 GB for both NBA 2K24 and NBA 2K25. NBA 2K26 then dropped back to 110 GB, the first fall in our 10-year run.
Bigger is not automatic
That NBA 2K26 drop is a reminder that size is a choice, not a law. Battlefield 6 asks for 55 GB at minimum, little more than Battlefield 1 did in 2016 and about half of Battlefield 2042’s 100 GB. Civilization VII asks for 20 GB, close to Civilization VI. Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a smaller game set in a single city, asks for 40 GB, a quarter of Valhalla’s 160 GB.
So the trend is real but uneven. In our sample, the games past 100 GB are mostly open-world, sports and big action games, while the strategy games and Battlefield 6 have stayed lean.
What it means if your drive is filling up
A 1 TB drive held about 19 typical 2016-era games from our sample. At today’s typical 105 GB, it holds fewer than 10, before Windows and updates take their share. Three practical steps help:
- Check the “Storage” line in the system requirements on a game’s Steam page before you buy, not after the download starts.
- Use Steam’s storage manager (Settings, then Storage) to see which games take the most space and move them to a second drive.
- Treat the listed figure as a floor. Some games list a higher number under their recommended specs: Forza Horizon 4 asks for 80 GB at minimum and 100 GB recommended, and Battlefield 6 asks for 55 GB and 80 GB.
Storage is only one part of what a modern PC game asks of you. Our Steam prices by country study looks at what 24 of the biggest PC games cost in 10 regions.
How we did it
We read the minimum “Storage” figure from the PC system requirements on each game’s Steam store page on Nov. 1, 2026, using Steam’s public store data. We picked big-budget games from long-running series that are sold on Steam, plus a handful of major standalone releases, and dated each by its PC release year rather than the date it arrived on Steam. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for example, came to PC in 2020 but to Steam in 2022. When we say “typical,” we mean the median: half the games in that group ask for more, and half for less.
Three limits are worth knowing. First, these are the figures listed today; publishers can update a page after patches, so a game’s requirement at launch may have been lower or higher. Second, the sample is not random, so treat the doubling as a strong signal rather than an exact industry average. Third, we left out games whose Steam page lists no storage figure, including Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil Requiem, Mortal Kombat 11 and Street Fighter V.
The full list of 46 games, with Steam links and figures, is available on request at editor[at]gameempress[dot]com. This analysis may be republished with credit and a link to Game Empress.