Is 2TB Enough for Gaming? | Storage for different types of games

Video games nowadays are progressing like crazy. The top-notch graphics and realistic textures of some games take the player on a breathtaking journey. But these additional details require vast disk space, which makes disk storage a significant factor for a gaming device.

For a decent gaming setup, you can consider a 2TB HDD enough. However, it depends on your gaming habit, the selection of the games, and how you want to be prepared for the future.

How Much Storage Do I Need to Make Enough for Gaming

In terms of usual circumstances, a 2TB storage is enough. But in the end, it all comes down to personal preferences. Because video games vary widely in size. There are some other factors as well that influence the use of storage in your gaming device. Here are the crucial factors that you will need to consider.

Type of the Games You Play

First of all, you must acknowledge that not all games require the same amount of disk space. Higher the texture and graphics quality, the more storage it takes. Whereas games with lighter graphics take up less space. As a result, whether 2TB is enough or not depends greatly upon the games you play.

1. AAA Games Takes Enormous Space

AAA games are developed by large studios with the contribution of hundreds of developers. They invest a lot of resources and time in the concept, design, gameplay, and graphics. These games are more complex and expansive. For example, some games provide an entire city for you to roam around in-game.

As a result, AAA games are meant to be bulky. The huge amount of information they contain needs to be stored somewhere. If you are fond of such games, no wonder you will need larger storage. Even 2TB can be insufficient if you download plenty of them at once. Here are some popular AAA games with required disk space:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – 231 GB
• Call of Duty: Warzone – 175 GB
• Red Dead Redemption 2 – 150 GB
• Microsoft Flight Simulator – 127 GB
• Forza Horizon 5 – 110 GB
• Grand Theft Auto V – 72 GB
• Cyberpunk 2077 – 70 GB
• Far Cry 6 – 60 GB
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – 30 GB
• FIFA 18 – 20 GB

2. Indie Games Are Smaller

Indie games are developed by smaller studios or by an individual. The investment in these games is often lower, making them smaller in scale. As a result, they are not as graphics-heavy as AAA titles. But it is not a bad thing, as they cost less and are aimed at a larger wider range of players.

The size of Indie titles is usually within 10 GB. This means you can squeeze about 100 or more of them in a 2TB HDD or SSD. But keep in mind that there are heavier indie games too. For example, Warframe requires about 30 GB of disk space. Some of the popular indie titles and their size are given below:

• Celeste – 1.2 GB
• Stardew Valley – 0.5 GB
• Hades – 15 GB
• Among Us – 0.25 GB
• Dead cells – 0.5 GB
• Hollow Knight – 9 GB 

Number of Games You Want to Install at Once

The number of games you install at the same time decides whether a 2TB storage is enough for you or not. For example, if you are fond of AAA titles, and want to install about 40 of them at once, with an average size of 50 GB each, 2TB will not suffice.

On the other hand, if you don’t like to play more than a few games at once, 2TB will be just enough. Roughly, you can store approximately 50 games in a 2TB HDD, considering a mixture of AAA, AA, and Indie games.

How You Use Your Storage

The numbers are shown so far assuming you will use your device storage for video games only. However, this might not always be the case. There can be other files that you want to store in your HDD or SSD. For example, media files take a lot of storage, especially RAW photos, and 4K videos.

Many gamers nowadays are content creators too. If you are a gamer as well as a content creator, who likes to record his gameplay at 4K resolution, you will require a lot of disk space. To give you a rough idea, a one-hour 4K 60 fps footage takes about 25 GB of storage. In that case, you might want to consider buying a 3TB HDD.

Your Plans for the Future

Back in the Nintendo cartridges era, the size of video games ranged from 8 kB to 6 MB. Today, an AAA game can take about 4 GB to 100 GB of storage, with some games requiring more than 200 GB of disk space. So, we can safely say that the size of video games isn’t getting any smaller in the future.

A 2TB storage can be considered enough even for the future in a general case. But, as discussed before, if you like to have a lot of AAA titles at once, 2TB may be enough for now, but may not be sufficient in the future. In that case, you should opt for 3TB or 4TB or maybe even larger ones, depending on your requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 2TB a Lot of Storage?

A 2TB storage device has a huge space to store files. It can store approximately 1,000 high-definition movies, 620,000 photos, and up to 70 hours of 4K video.

How Many Games Will 2TB Hold?

The number of games a 2TB storage can hold depends on the size of the games. For example, a 2TB storage can hold about 50 games. The number will be more than that if there are fewer AAA titles but more Indie and AA ones.

How Many TB Do I Need for Gaming?

It is recommended to have 1TB of storage for gaming. In a 1TB HDD or SSD, you will be able to store approximately 20 games, with an average size of 40 GB each. You will need the rest of your storage for the operating system and other software and files.

Bottom Line

In general circumstances, a 2TB storage is enough for gaming. If you have an extra budget, consider buying a 2TB SSD instead of a 2TB HDD. By that, you will be able to get a faster gaming experience.