We knew GTA 6 was going to be a big one, but perhaps we weren't quite expecting to have to set aside this much room on the console's SSD. According to information from the PlayStation Game Size account, Rockstar Games' next game would weigh in at just under 210 GB on PS5. A figure that has also been corroborated by the site Insider Gaming. Suffice to say it's time to start having a clear-out of your game library, especially if your machine is already flashing up a nearly full storage warning. The people already moaning about that figure and calling it poor optimisation on Rockstar Games' part probably have no idea just how enormous GTA 6's open world is going to be. Obviously, with technical ambitions like these, its remarkably detailed environments and the sheer amount of content promised, GTA 6 was never going to squeeze into a few dozen gigabytes. That said, at 210 GB, Rockstar's game would rank among the most sizeable productions of recent years. Bear in mind, though, that this is the figure given at this stage for the PS5 version.
For a sense of scale, GTA 5 currently demands around 148 GB on PS5, counting GTA Online and its updates. GTA 6 would therefore take up a lot more space, even if the comparison has to account for the years separating the two games. The contrast is even more striking against Red Dead Redemption 2, which came in at roughly 105 GB when it launched in 2018. Rockstar Games' new game would thus be twice the size of its predecessor. Elsewhere, you may recall that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hovered around 145 GB on PS5, while Baldur's Gate 3 flirted with 150 GB. NBA 2K games can also top 150 GB depending on the instalment. Call of Duty, on the other hand, is in a league of its own, with installations capable of exceeding 300 GB when all the content is downloaded at once (campaign, multiplayer, Warzone). Worth noting all the same that, unlike Activision's franchise, GTA 6 is billed as a single-player experience.
GTA 6: a heavyweight
The snag is that those 210 GB will weigh heavily on the storage of certain consoles. Remember that launch PS5s come with an 825 GB SSD, of which roughly 667 GB are actually available for games and apps. GTA 6 could therefore swallow nearly a third of that space all by itself. Things also look tricky for the Xbox Series S and its 500 GB SSD, even if the exact size of the Xbox version hasn't been announced. You'd expect a figure comparable to the PS5 version, but that remains to be confirmed. In short, if you're in the habit of keeping several big games installed at once, you'll probably have to make some tough calls.
Thankfully, players shouldn't have to download all 210 GB on release day itself, since according to the information doing the rounds, GTA 6 preloading is set to begin on 12 November at midnight local time, a week before launch. That should give players time to pull down the files and avoid, as far as possible, servers buckling as the big day approaches.
