Good news, folks – Battlefield 6 isn't as storage-hungry as you might have thought, with its already respectable complete file size able to be cut down further to just the bits you're interested in playing. However, fans are worried it might not be so compact forever.
As noted by PC Gamer, looking at Battlefield 6's system requirements on Steam, you can see two very different numbers when it comes to the amount of storage needed for the FPS. At minimum, players need 55GB, but it's recommended that you should ideally have 80GB.
Clarifying the reason for this in a statement sent to PC Gamer, an EA representative explains that we'll "be able to pick and choose which components of the game you install." Although "there will be a shared base package," users can "separately choose to install the main components" such as multiplayer and single-player, so they're only using up space on the things they want, with the flexibility to swap and change where wanted.
Hopefully, that means less of deleting other games off your hard drive in order to clear room. I imagine many might choose to uninstall the single-player campaign once they've completed it. Equally, if you're someone who couldn't care less about diving into the action online (especially as some are starting to worry about the potential impact of skill-based matchmaking), then you don't have to spare the storage space for it.
This is an approach that Call of Duty games have also been taking in more recent years, and something that's quite a relief when you consider how massive their file sizes can be. However, even though Battlefield 6's current file size seems pretty manageable in comparison to some of the biggest CoD titles, fans are concerned it might not remain that way forever.
Obviously, you can expect updates to make games bigger and bigger over time, but even day-one patches can seriously inflate file sizes sometimes. Back in 2022, some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 players reported being hit with a day-one patch of around 60GB on Xbox.
"This '55 gigs' sounds real nice but will eventually balloon up to 100+ gig over time with updates. Don't be delusional," one predicts. "How big is the day one patch?" another questions. "55GB installation and then 120GB day one patch..." another worries.
Before we start planning ahead to Battlefield 6's October 10 launch, we have a whole open beta to look forward to. It'll first be available starting August 7 for those who've unlocked early access, before the doors are opened to everyone else soon after.
Battlefield 6 won't have a server browser, but the game's producer believes the current system "answers all these wants."
