If you’ve ever stared at your console or PC storage bar trying to decide which game to delete to make room for a new title, you know how frustrating last-minute size surprises can be. If you’re thinking of jumping into Respawn Entertainment’s fast-paced battle royale, one of the first questions you’re probably asking is how big is Apex Legends download across the devices you own. I’ve downloaded the game on four different platforms over the last three years, and I’ve dealt with everything from surprise 30GB mid-season patches to corrupted installs that forced me to redownload the entire game from scratch. This guide breaks down exactly what size you can expect, plus workarounds to cut down on unnecessary storage use if you’re tight on space.
How Big Is Apex Legends Download By Platform
Download sizes vary pretty significantly depending on what device you play on, mostly due to texture quality settings and platform-specific compression tools. All sizes listed below are for the base game with no optional add-ons installed, and include the latest season content as of the most recent update.
For PC users on Steam or the EA App, the base game download sits at roughly 85GB. Steam and EA App users can opt out of the high-resolution texture pack during install to save an extra 20GB, which is a no-brainer if you play on a 1080p monitor or lower. I play on 1440p and tested both versions for a week, and I couldn’t tell a meaningful difference in visual quality during fast-paced fights, so I keep the texture pack uninstalled to save space for other games. If you do choose to install the high-res pack, total download size jumps to around 105GB.
Next-gen console players can expect slightly smaller sizes than PC. PlayStation 5 users will see a ~80GB download, while PS4 players will need roughly 76GB of free space. Xbox Series X/S downloads come in at ~82GB, and Xbox One installs sit at ~77GB. Switch players don’t get the high-res texture option at all, which is why their download is far smaller at just 32GB. Keep in mind that day one patches usually add an extra 2-5GB on top of the base download size, so leave a little extra space before you hit install.
What Contributes to Apex Legends’ Large Install Size?
Many new players are surprised by how big the game is compared to other popular battle royales, but there are clear reasons for the large file size. Respawn adds a ton of new content every three months for new seasons, plus extra content for mid-season events, and most of that content stays in the base install even after events end.
The biggest contributors to the large install size are:
- High-resolution texture and character model packs for 4K gameplay on PC and next-gen consoles
- All current and legacy battle royale, mixtape, and limited-time event map files
- Multi-language voiceover and subtitle packs preinstalled for all supported regions
- Cosmetic assets including legendary skins, finishers, banner frames, and emotes for 25+ playable legends
- Backlogged patch files that are not automatically removed after updates on some console platforms
For example, the latest season’s map change added 7GB of new terrain, character skin, and game mode assets that didn’t exist before. I noticed my PS5 install was 12GB larger than my friend’s last year, and I realized it was because I had 3 extra language packs installed that I never used. Those preinstalled language packs alone take up 5-10GB of space on most platforms, and most players don’t even know they can remove them.
Practical Tips to Reduce Apex Legends Install Size
You don’t have to delete half your game library to fit Apex on your drive. There are a handful of simple tweaks you can use to cut the install size down by 20-30GB without making any sacrifices to your gameplay experience.
Uninstall unused language packs first, as this is the easiest way to free up space fast. On PlayStation, go to Settings > Storage > Games and Apps > Apex Legends > Manage Content to see all installed language packs and delete the ones you don’t need. On Xbox, the same option is available under My Games & Apps > Apex Legends > Manage Game & Add-ons. This step alone freed up 8GB on my PS5 last year.
If you’re on PC, make sure you don’t have the high-resolution texture pack installed unless you actively play on 4K. You can check this by right clicking Apex Legends in your Steam library, selecting Properties, going to Installed Files, and unchecking the high-res texture pack option if it’s selected. Another little-known trick for PC users is to clear old shader cache files every few months, which can free up an extra 2-3GB of space.
Uninstall and reinstall the game once a year after a major season drop to get rid of all leftover patch files that accumulate over time. I did this last season and cut my PC install size from 112GB to 87GB, with zero loss of saved data or cosmetics because all progress is stored on Respawn’s cloud servers. You don’t have to do this often, but it’s a great fix if you notice your install size growing way larger than the official estimates.
What to Expect for Future Apex Legends Download Size Changes
Respawn has been very open about player feedback around large install sizes, and they’re testing multiple updates to reduce the overall download footprint for all players over the next year. The first big update is a new asset compression tool that will reduce the base install size by 15-20% without any loss of visual quality, which is expected to roll out in the next two seasons.
The team is also testing a mode-specific install option that will let players uninstall game modes they don’t play, like ranked, mixtape, or limited-time event modes. For casual players who only play casual battle royale, this could save an extra 10-15GB of space, which is a huge win for anyone with a smaller SSD. Expect 5-10GB patches for every major season drop, and 1-3GB patches for mid-season events, so you should always leave at least 20GB of free space on your drive where Apex is installed to avoid update errors. I learned this the hard way last season when I only had 8GB free and the update failed three times before I cleared more space.
For next-gen console players, Respawn is also planning to split the high-resolution texture pack into a separate optional download, instead of bundling it with the base install like they do now. That means players who don’t play on 4K won’t have to waste space on those high-res assets by default, which will cut the base next-gen install size by roughly 15GB.
At the end of the day, knowing how big is Apex Legends download before you start installing saves you the headache of deleting favorite games at the last minute or waiting hours for a surprise extra patch to finish downloading. The size varies a lot by platform and the optional add-ons you choose to install, so you can easily adjust it to fit your available storage without sacrificing gameplay quality. If you’re still tight on space after following the tips above, consider moving less frequently played games to an external hard drive to keep Apex on your faster internal drive for the best performance. You’ll be dropping into King’s Canyon or World’s Edge before you know it, no storage-related stress required.