Titanfall’s 48 GB PC install held 35 GB of uncompressed audio, roughly 72.9% of the download by our math, and the console version that decoded audio in hardware was a 17 GB download. That 2014 case is still the clearest public measurement of how much space game audio can take when it ships without compression. The rest of the picture has moved on: the largest AAA PC listings we checked ask for 116 GB to 180 GB, 15.98% of Steam PCs have less than 100 GB free, and middleware documentation now quotes Opus compression ratios of up to about 60:1. We aggregated data from Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey, Audiokinetic (Wwise), Firelight Technologies (FMOD), Epic Games, Microsoft, Arrowhead Game Studios, CD PROJEKT RED, GDC Vault session records and console makers’ spec pages. For the people side of the same discipline (salaries, tools, AI adoption), see our game audio industry statistics.
TL;DR
- Titanfall’s PC download was 48 GB at launch, 35 GB of it uncompressed audio, versus 17 GB on Xbox One (Respawn via Engadget, 2014).
- Baldur’s Gate 3 asks for 150 GB and ARK: Survival Ascended for 180 GB of PC storage (Steam store listings, 2026).
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 needs an SSD with 116 GB free at launch on every PC spec tier (Activision Support, 2025).
- 15.98% of Windows Steam PCs have less than 100 GB of free drive space (Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey October 2026).
- Wwise lists Opus compression at 2:1 to about 60:1 and Vorbis at 2:1 to about 40:1, versus a constant 4:1 for ADPCM (Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec).
- In FMOD’s Windows benchmark, Vorbis decoding used 6.88% CPU versus 1.59% for uncompressed PCM (Firelight Technologies, FMOD 2.03 Windows platform details).
- Cyberpunk 2077 recorded more than 80,000 dialogue lines in 11 voice-over languages (CD PROJEKT RED, GDC 2023).
- A single extra voice language costs 873 MB to 2.5 GB in the two Nintendo eShop Japanese voice packs we checked (Nintendo eShop listings, 2026).
- Helldivers 2 cut its PC install from about 154 GB to about 23 GB (about 85%) once only around 11% of players were found on hard drives (Arrowhead Game Studios, Tech Blog #2, 2025).
1. How Big Modern Game Installs Are in 2025-2026
180 GB is now a published minimum storage requirement, not an edge case: ARK: Survival Ascended asks for it, with an SSD required at minimum spec. Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 all sit between 116 GB and 150 GB. A single AAA install in this range takes a double-digit share of a 1 TB drive before any patch lands.
The spread is just as telling as the peak. Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most voice-heavy open worlds on the market, lists 70 GB on Windows, less than half of ARK. Install size tracks packaging and asset decisions (texture resolution, duplication, audio format) as much as it tracks how much content a game holds, which is why the Helldivers 2 case in section 6 matters. Activision’s own Black Ops 7 PC requirements page also warns that “additional storage space may be required for mandatory game updates”, so these figures are floors.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Baldur’s Gate 3 PC storage requirement (minimum and recommended) | 150 GB | Larian Studios, Steam store listing 2026 |
| ARK: Survival Ascended PC storage requirement (SSD required at minimum spec) | 180 GB | Studio Wildcard, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Black Myth: Wukong PC storage requirement | 130 GB | Game Science, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 SSD space needed at launch on PC (minimum, recommended and Ultra 4K tiers) | 116 GB | Activision Support, PC System Requirements for Black Ops 7 (2025) |
| Cyberpunk 2077 storage requirement, Windows version vs macOS version | 70 GB vs 92 GB | CD PROJEKT RED, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 PC storage requirement | 50 GB | Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Helldivers 2 PC install before the slim build, compared with the console install of the same game | around 150 GB, roughly three times larger than on consoles | Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 Tech Blog #1 (October 3, 2025) |
Context note: store-listing figures are the space publishers ask buyers to reserve, not a measured on-disk size, and they include shared code, video and textures alongside audio. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s listing adds that it “requires download(s)” with significant storage, so its 50 GB is not the whole data footprint.
2. Where Those Installs Have to Fit: Console and PC Storage
15.98% of Windows Steam PCs have less than 100 GB of free space (0.77% with under 10 GB plus 15.21% with 10 to 99 GB, our sum of the October 2026 survey rows). For that group, every 116 GB-plus game in section 1 requires deleting something first. Another 23.83% sit at 100 to 249 GB free, enough for one or two of the section 1 games and little else.
Console usable space tells the same story from the other side. The 512 GB Xbox Series S leaves 364 GB for games and apps, and the launch PS5 left about 667 GB of its 825 GB SSD. The newer hardware has grown, with 2 TB in the PS5 Pro and microSD Express cards of up to 2 TB on Switch 2, but both Sony and Nintendo footnote that part of the internal storage is reserved for the system, so the advertised capacity is never the usable capacity. The full survey is published at the Steam Hardware & Software Survey page.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Launch PS5 SSD: total capacity vs space usable for games | 825 GB total, about 667 GB usable | Push Square, PS5 storage report (November 6, 2020) |
| Xbox Series S (512 GB model): space usable for games and apps | 364 GB | GameSpot, review-unit check (November 4, 2020) |
| PS5 Pro built-in SSD (a portion reserved for system software) | 2 TB | Sony Interactive Entertainment, PS5 Pro product page 2026 |
| Xbox Series X internal storage options | 1 TB or 2 TB custom NVMe SSD | Microsoft, Xbox Series X specs 2026 |
| Nintendo Switch 2 internal storage vs maximum microSD Express card size | 256 GB (UFS) internal, cards up to 2 TB | Nintendo, Switch 2 tech specs 2026 |
| Windows Steam PCs with less than 100 GB of free drive space | 15.98% | Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey October 2026 |
| Windows Steam PCs with 100 GB to 249 GB of free drive space | 23.83% | Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey October 2026 |
| Windows Steam PCs whose total drive space is above 1 TB | 50.94% | Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey October 2026 |
Most recent available data for usable console space: Push Square and GameSpot, 2020. Neither console maker publishes a usable-capacity figure on its spec pages; both state only that part of the drive is reserved.
3. The Uncompressed Audio Trade-Off: Titanfall and the CPU Cost of Decoding
35 GB of Titanfall’s 48 GB PC download was uncompressed audio, about 72.9% of the install (35 / 48, our math). Respawn lead engineer Richard Baker explained that “a two-core machine would dedicate a huge chunk of one core to just decompressing audio”, so the studio traded disk space for CPU headroom on minimum-spec PCs, as reported by Engadget in March 2014. The Xbox One build was 17 GB, and Microsoft’s XMA2 documentation confirms that on Xbox One, XMA2 audio decompression is implemented in hardware. Most recent available data: Engadget, 2014. We found no later AAA release that published a comparable audio share of its install.
The decode cost Respawn was avoiding is measurable. In FMOD’s Windows performance reference (64 voices at 48 kHz on an Intel Core i7 860), Vorbis decoding took 6.88% CPU, more than four times the 1.59% for uncompressed PCM. Audiokinetic puts Vorbis at about 1.5x to 3x the cost of ADPCM and Opus at typically 5x to 10x slower, and its stream table shows one PC core decoding 9,500 real-time ADPCM streams against 1,300 to 500 Opus streams depending on quality. The trade-off has not disappeared; it has shifted from “can the CPU decode it at all” to “how many voices can the CPU decode at once”.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Titanfall PC download size at launch | 48 GB | Respawn Entertainment via Engadget, March 11, 2014 |
| Uncompressed audio inside that PC install | 35 GB (about 72.9% of the install, our math) | Respawn Entertainment via Engadget, March 11, 2014 |
| Titanfall Xbox One download size | 17 GB | Engadget, March 11, 2014 |
| FMOD DSP CPU cost of Vorbis decoding (64 voices, 48 kHz, Intel Core i7 860) | 6.88% | Firelight Technologies, FMOD 2.03 Windows platform details |
| FMOD DSP CPU cost of FADPCM decoding, same test | 3.10% | Firelight Technologies, FMOD 2.03 Windows platform details |
| FMOD DSP CPU cost of uncompressed PCM, same test | 1.59% | Firelight Technologies, FMOD 2.03 Windows platform details |
| Wwise decode cost of Vorbis and Opus compared with ADPCM | Vorbis about 1.5x to 3x; Opus typically 5x to 10x slower | Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec |
| Scars Above total audio memory budget on last-generation consoles and lower-spec PCs | 250 MB | Mad Head Games, Scars Above audio optimization post |
Context note: FMOD still recommends Vorbis as the “primary format for all sounds” on Windows and FADPCM only as a secondary format “if Vorbis CPU usage is too high for low spec machines”, while it lists PCM as “not recommended”. The Scars Above team defaulted to Vorbis at quality 4 across platforms. Uncompressed shipping is now the exception that engine vendors advise against.
4. Codec Compression Ratios Used by Engines and Middleware
Opus can reach about 60:1 in Wwise, against a fixed 4:1 for ADPCM (a simple, cheap-to-decode format that encodes predicted differences between samples). In practice this is the single biggest lever on audio’s share of an install: the same dialogue bank stored as PCM, ADPCM or Opus can differ by more than an order of magnitude in size. Audiokinetic’s codec guide is candid that the upper limits are “hardly achievable” and depend on quality settings and content, with Opus reaching its best ratios on voice content and some music.
A rough yardstick (our arithmetic, not a vendor figure): uncompressed 48 kHz, 16-bit stereo PCM runs at 48,000 x 16 x 2 = 1,536 kbit/s. The IETF Opus standard tops out at 510 kbit/s for fullband stereo music, about a third of that rate (510 / 1,536 = 33.2%), and goes down to 6 kbit/s for narrowband speech. Codec choice also travels into the perceptual side of the mix; our neural audio codec bitrate and quality statistics cover where the next generation of codecs is heading.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PCM vs ADPCM compression ratio in Wwise | 1:1 vs 4:1 (both constant) | Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec |
| Vorbis compression ratio range in Wwise | 2:1 to about 40:1 | Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec |
| Opus compression ratio range in Wwise (better on voice content) | 2:1 to about 60:1 | Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec |
| Console hardware codecs: XMA ratio vs ATRAC9 ratio | XMA 6:1 to 15:1; ATRAC9 8:1 to 13:1 | Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec |
| Bink Audio vs ADPCM compression ratio in Unreal Engine | up to 10:1 vs up to 4:1 | Epic Games, Unreal Engine Importing Audio Files |
| ADPCM compression factor in Unity | constant 3.5, “usually about 3 times worse” than Vorbis or MP3 | Unity Technologies, Audio compression manual |
| ADPCM in XAudio2 (Windows audio API): maximum ratio and block size range | up to 4:1; blocks of 32 to 512 samples | Microsoft Learn, ADPCM Overview (updated March 11, 2025) |
| Opus bitrate range in the IETF standard | 6 kbit/s narrowband mono speech to 510 kbit/s fullband stereo music | IETF, RFC 6716 (September 2012) |
Outlier note: the engines disagree slightly on ADPCM (4:1 in Wwise and XAudio2, 3.5 in Unity) because implementations and block sizes differ. The XAudio2 page notes that larger ADPCM blocks compress better at the expense of sound quality and loop-point precision. Most recent available data for Opus: IETF RFC 6716, 2012, which remains the governing standard.
5. Localized Voice-Over Packs: Audio That Multiplies by Language
Cyberpunk 2077 recorded more than 80,000 lines of dialogue in 11 voice-over languages, according to CD PROJEKT RED’s GDC 2023 localization talk. Every one of those languages is a full parallel copy of the dialogue audio, which is why voice-over is the one asset class whose footprint scales with the language list rather than with the game world. A 2012 Ubisoft GDC session described managing voices in up to 10 languages as leading to “close to half a million versions of audio lines” on an AAA game (GDC Vault).
Platforms now treat those copies as optional downloads. The Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 ships English voice-over on the card and lists eight other voice-over languages as downloads of up to 2.9 GB each; installing all eight could add up to 23.2 GB (8 x 2.9 GB, our math, using the stated maximum). Microsoft’s Intelligent Delivery language specifiers do the same on Xbox: the console “downloads only the chunks marked for that language” plus untagged content, which the documentation says saves bandwidth and hard-drive space. On Steam, “full audio” in a listing means the language has recorded voice-over, not only translated text and subtitles, and many large games record just one or two.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 localization scope | more than 80,000 dialogue lines in 11 voice-over languages; more than 1 million words of text | CD PROJEKT RED, GDC 2023 (Tommi Nykopp and Mikolaj Szwed) |
| Cyberpunk 2077 languages with full audio vs all supported languages on Steam | 11 of 19 | CD PROJEKT RED, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2: size of each extra language pack | up to 2.9 GB each (8 voice-over languages download separately; English is included) | CD PROJEKT RED Support, Language Support page 2026 |
| Baldur’s Gate 3 languages with full audio vs all languages listed on Steam | 1 (English) of 15 | Larian Studios, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Black Myth: Wukong languages with full audio on Steam | 2 (English and Simplified Chinese) | Game Science, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Fire Emblem Warriors Japanese voice pack vs base game size | 2.5 GB vs 13.4 GB (about 18.7%, our math) | Nintendo, eShop DLC listing and game page 2026 |
| Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Japanese voice pack vs base game size | 873 MB vs 13.2 GB (about 6.6%, our math) | Nintendo, eShop DLC listing and game page 2026 |
| DC Universe Online French audio pack (voice-over only, no text localization) | 2.51 GB | Daybreak Game Company, Xbox Store listing |
Context note: the voice-pack ratios compare a single extra language with the full base game, so they understate the total voice share (the base game already contains one language of dialogue). Loudness targets apply to every one of these localized mixes too; see our game loudness and LUFS compliance statistics.
6. Shrinking Installs: Deduplication, Texture Compression and Smarter Delivery
Helldivers 2 dropped from about 154 GB to about 23 GB on PC, a saving of about 131 GB (about 85%), once the studio removed data it had duplicated for mechanical hard drives (HDDs, the spinning-disk drives that read faster when related files sit next to each other). The studio had warned in October 2025 that removing all duplication would make HDD loading 10 times slower; by December its Tech Blog #2 reported that only around 11% of active players were on an HDD and opened an opt-in slim build. The lesson for audio teams: a large share of many installs is packaging overhead, not content.
2026 brought more of the same. GROUND BRANCH cut its installed size from nearly 100 GB to 39.4 GB with packaging changes and texture work in its V1.0 hotfix notes, and NetEase said Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 would shrink by about 40 GB on PC and about 15 GB on PS5 and Xbox through texture compression (VGC, August 5, 2026). Hardware decompression lowers the load-time cost of heavier compression: Xbox Series X and Series S list 2.4 GB/s raw and 4.8 GB/s compressed throughput thanks to a dedicated decompression block. Precomputed acoustic data is a newer item on the same storage bill; our ray-traced audio occlusion statistics track bake sizes.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Helldivers 2 PC install before vs after full deduplication | about 154 GB to about 23 GB | Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 Tech Blog #2 (December 2, 2025) |
| Space saved by the Helldivers 2 slim build | about 131 GB (about 85%) | Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 Tech Blog #2 (December 2, 2025) |
| Share of active Helldivers 2 players on a mechanical hard drive in the week measured | around 11% | Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 Tech Blog #2 (December 2, 2025) |
| Earlier developer estimate of HDD loading times if all duplication were removed | 10 times slower | Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 Tech Blog #1 (October 3, 2025) |
| GROUND BRANCH installed size before vs after the V1.0 Hotfix 1 | nearly 100 GB to 39.4 GB | GROUND BRANCH development team, Build Update #065 (July 23, 2026) |
| Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 install size reduction, PC vs PS5 and Xbox | about 40 GB vs about 15 GB | NetEase Games via Video Games Chronicle (August 5, 2026) |
| Xbox Series X and Series S storage throughput, raw vs compressed with hardware decompression | 2.4 GB/s vs 4.8 GB/s | Microsoft, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S specs 2026 |
Outlier note: none of the 2025-2026 reductions above were credited to audio. Duplication and textures were the targets, which suggests that after the industry’s move to Vorbis, Opus and hardware codecs, audio is rarely the first place teams now look for gigabytes.
Summary: Game Install Size & Audio Asset Share by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Titanfall PC download at launch | 48 GB | Respawn Entertainment via Engadget, 2014 |
| Uncompressed audio inside Titanfall’s PC install | 35 GB (about 72.9%) | Respawn Entertainment via Engadget, 2014 |
| Titanfall Xbox One download | 17 GB | Engadget, 2014 |
| ARK: Survival Ascended PC storage requirement | 180 GB | Studio Wildcard, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Baldur’s Gate 3 PC storage requirement | 150 GB | Larian Studios, Steam store listing 2026 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 SSD space at launch | 116 GB | Activision Support, 2025 |
| Windows Steam PCs with less than 100 GB free | 15.98% | Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey October 2026 |
| Windows Steam PCs with more than 1 TB of total drive space | 50.94% | Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey October 2026 |
| Xbox Series S (512 GB) usable space | 364 GB | GameSpot, 2020 |
| Launch PS5 usable space out of 825 GB | about 667 GB | Push Square, 2020 |
| Opus compression ratio range in Wwise | 2:1 to about 60:1 | Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec |
| Bink Audio maximum ratio in Unreal Engine | up to 10:1 | Epic Games, Unreal Engine docs |
| FMOD CPU cost, Vorbis vs uncompressed PCM | 6.88% vs 1.59% | Firelight Technologies, FMOD 2.03 docs |
| Cyberpunk 2077 voice-over scope | more than 80,000 lines in 11 languages | CD PROJEKT RED, GDC 2023 |
| Fire Emblem Warriors Japanese voice pack vs base game | 2.5 GB vs 13.4 GB | Nintendo eShop listings, 2026 |
| Helldivers 2 PC install before vs after deduplication | about 154 GB to about 23 GB | Arrowhead Game Studios, 2025 |
| GROUND BRANCH installed size before vs after hotfix | nearly 100 GB to 39.4 GB | GROUND BRANCH development team, 2026 |
Methodology and Sources
- Respawn Entertainment interview figures as reported by Engadget, March 11, 2014 (Titanfall install and audio size).
- Steam store listings for Baldur’s Gate 3, ARK: Survival Ascended, Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, read November 2026 (storage requirements and full-audio language flags).
- Activision Support, PC System Requirements for Black Ops 7.
- Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey, October 2026 (free and total drive space distributions).
- Console specs: Sony PS5 Pro and PS5 pages, Microsoft Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S pages, Nintendo Switch 2 tech specs.
- Usable console storage: Push Square, November 6, 2020 and GameSpot, November 4, 2020.
- Audiokinetic, A Guide for Choosing the Right Codec (Wwise ratios, CPU cost, stream counts).
- Mad Head Games, Scars Above audio optimization practices (memory budget, default codec).
- Firelight Technologies, FMOD 2.03 Windows platform details (recommended formats and CPU benchmark).
- Epic Games, Unreal Engine: Importing Audio Files.
- Unity Technologies, Audio compression manual.
- Microsoft Learn, XAudio2 ADPCM Overview, Intelligent Delivery language specifiers and Xbox devdocs XMA2 overview.
- IETF, RFC 6716: Definition of the Opus Audio Codec.
- GDC Vault: Localization of Cyberpunk 2077 (GDC 2023) and How To Ship a Game With Voices In 10 Languages (GDC 2012).
- CD PROJEKT RED Support, Cyberpunk 2077 Switch 2 language support.
- Nintendo eShop listings for the Fire Emblem Warriors Japanese voice pack, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Japanese voice pack and their base games; Xbox Store listing for the DC Universe Online French audio pack.
- Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 Tech Blog #1 and Tech Blog #2; GROUND BRANCH Build Update #065; NetEase Games via Video Games Chronicle.
- Data watch: the Titanfall figures (2014) and usable console storage figures (2020) are the most recent public measurements available, and we found no publisher that has since disclosed an audio share of its install, so treat the 72.9% as a single documented case, not an industry average. The PS5 usable figure appears as about 667 GB in Push Square’s report and as 667.2 GB in other launch coverage we could not verify against a primary source. Wwise compression ratios depend on content and quality settings, and their upper limits are described in the codec guide as hardly achievable. The Scars Above post carries no publication date. Percentages marked “our math” (72.9%, 18.7%, 6.6%, 15.98%, 33.2%) and the 23.2 GB voice-pack total are our own calculations from the cited figures. The Marvel Rivals reductions were announced before Season 9.5 shipped. A widely repeated Digital Foundry measurement of Titanfall’s audio CPU load was dropped because we could not reach the original article. Steam survey shares move monthly.
Last updated: November 7, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when Valve publishes the January 2027 Steam Hardware & Software Survey.