Why your games take up way more drive space than expected (even when uninstalled)

Even after uninstalling a game, there are often remnants of data left in your storage. Some you may want to leave, and some you should delete manually. Why your games take up way more drive space than expected (even when uninstalled).

Gaming Why your games take up way more drive space than expected (even when uninstalled) If your gaming PC or console is struggling with storage, there are some things you want to check. The latest Lara Croft adventure, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, needs 40GB for the base game. That’s roughly a 400-fold jump, and plenty of modern games follow the same pattern.

Worse, when you uninstall one to make room for the next, some of that data can stay behind. The install size is only the starting number Every game on a digital store lists the space it needs, and it’s easy to see why. (A new drive can also show less storage than advertised, which makes every gigabyte count for more.) You need to know in advance whether you have enough free room on your drive and how much of your internet plan the download is about to eat.

Patches, DLC and other extra content get added on top of it, and Steam treats DLC you own as part of the game itself. In the past few years, a lot of publishers have shipped a bare-bones version of a game and pushed the rest as a download at launch.