Game Storage Space Calculator

Game Storage Space requirements have grown dramatically over the years. Modern AAA games routinely exceed 100 GB, making storage planning essential for any PC or console gamer.

How this calculator works: The total storage needed is calculated as:

Space for games = Number of Games × Average Size per Category Drive space needed = (Space for games + System Reserve) ÷ 0.85

The system reserve covers the operating system, page file, temporary files and the applications you keep around. Windows wants 40 to 60 GB of that. The division by 0.85 is the 15% free space every SSD should keep, and it is the step people leave out when they work this out on the back of an envelope.

Average game sizes by category:

• Indie games (~5 GB): Smaller titles like Celeste, Hollow Knight, or Hades. These are lightweight and storage-friendly.
• AA games (~25 GB): Mid-tier games like Helldivers 2, Valheim, or Subnautica. Good production quality without massive file sizes.
• AAA games (~75 GB): Major releases like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077 (base), or Baldur’s Gate 3. High-quality assets drive the large size.
• AAA with DLC (~120 GB): Games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (with Warzone), Final Fantasy XV, or Microsoft Flight Simulator. DLC, updates, and high-res texture packs push these to enormous sizes.

SSD vs HDD: Solid State Drives (SSDs) are significantly faster than Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). Game load times on an SSD can be 2-5 times faster. Many modern games are designed with SSDs in mind, and some titles on PS5 and Xbox Series X require SSD storage. For PC gaming, an NVMe SSD is the gold standard, while a SATA SSD is still a major improvement over an HDD.

However, HDDs remain cost-effective for storing games you do not play frequently. A common setup is a smaller SSD (500 GB to 1 TB) for active games and a larger HDD (2-4 TB) for your archive.

The capacity you paid for is not the capacity you get

Drives are sold in decimal gigabytes and reported by Windows and the consoles in binary ones. A drive sold as 1 TB holds exactly 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, and Windows divides that by 1,024 three times and calls it 931 GB. Nothing is missing and nothing is wrong, the two sides just count in different bases, but you lose 7% of the number on the box before you install a single thing.

Consoles make it obvious because they publish the usable figure. The Xbox Series X ships a 1 TB drive and shows 802 GB free out of the box, and the PS5’s 825 GB drive leaves about 667 GB. The rest is the system software.

This calculator applies that conversion, so its answers match what File Explorer will actually show you. Working from 60 GB for the operating system and the 15% free space rule:

Those assume the drive also carries Windows. Set the system reserve to 0 for a second drive that only holds games and every row gains exactly one more AAA title, which is a 100% improvement on the 256 GB and barely a rounding error on the 4 TB.

Tips for managing storage:

• Uninstall games you have finished or are not actively playing.
• Use Steam’s Storage Manager to see which games use the most space.
• Disable HD texture packs for games where you do not notice the difference.
• Keep at least 10-15% of your SSD free to maintain performance and drive longevity.
• Consider game streaming services for titles you only play occasionally.