If you’re clearing space on your hard drive to jump into Respawn’s fast-paced battle royale, you’ve probably asked how big is Apex Legends PC. I’ve reinstalled the game at least a dozen times over the last few years, switching between a gaming laptop and a desktop, so I know how frustrating it is to run out of storage mid-download, especially when you’re excited to drop into a new season. Unlike many smaller indie titles, Apex’s size shifts constantly with updates, new character drops, and map changes, so numbers you saw a year ago are almost certainly out of date. This guide breaks down everything you need to know about current install sizes, what takes up the most space, and how to reduce the file size if you’re tight on storage.
How Big is Apex Legends PC: Current Base and Seasonal Install Sizes
As of the latest seasonal release, the base install size for Apex Legends on Steam sits at roughly 85GB for a standard install with no optional add-ons. If you’re using the EA App, the same standard install is closer to 90GB, as the launcher includes extra overlay and anti-cheat files that aren’t compressed as tightly as they are on Steam. If you opt into the high-resolution texture pack during install, you can add another 15 to 20GB to that total, bringing the maximum possible install size to around 110GB for the full experience.
Seasonal updates, which drop every three months, usually require 10 to 15GB of extra space to download and install, but that’s not added to the total install size permanently. In many cases, seasonal updates replace old map files or outdated character assets, so the total install size only grows by 2 to 5GB per season on average. That means even if you’ve had the game installed for two years, your total size probably isn’t more than 10 to 15GB bigger than a fresh install, which is a nice change from many live service games that bloat to 200GB+ over time.
I’ve had friends who tried to install the game on a drive with exactly 85GB of free space and hit an error, because launchers always reserve extra temporary space for download files during the install process. You should always have at least 100GB of free space before starting a first-time Apex download to avoid this frustrating issue, even if the listed install size is smaller.
What Takes Up the Most Space in Your Apex Legends Install?
Most players don’t realize that nearly 40% of their Apex install is made up of map files. The current map rotation includes three large battle royale maps, plus four smaller maps for mixtape modes like Team Deathmatch and Control, all of which have high-detail assets, lighting files, and interactive elements that take up a ton of space. Unlike some games that let you uninstall maps you don’t play, Apex requires all maps to be installed so you can queue for any mode without extra downloads.
High-resolution texture packs are the single biggest space hog for most players, though. These packs are designed for 4K displays, and they add extra detail to character skins, weapon skins, and map textures that are almost impossible to notice on 1080p or 1440p monitors. If you have the texture pack enabled and you don’t play on 4K, you’re wasting 15 to 20GB of space for no real benefit.
Another big chunk of the install size comes from preloaded cosmetic assets. Every skin, charm, emote, and finisher released in the last four years is preloaded into your game files, even if you never bought or unlocked them. That’s so you can see other players’ cosmetics during matches without having to stream them in real time, which would cause lag and visual glitches. Audio files are another often-overlooked space drain. If you have multiple language packs enabled for voice lines and subtitles, each extra language adds 2 to 3GB of space. I accidentally left Japanese and Spanish voice packs enabled for a season last year, and that took up 6GB of extra space I didn’t even know I was using.
How to Reduce Apex Legends PC File Size Without Breaking the Game
If you’re tight on SSD space, you don’t have to delete your favorite single-player games to make room for Apex. There are a few safe, easy tweaks you can make to cut down your install size by 10 to 25GB, depending on what add-ons you have enabled. All of these tweaks are officially supported by Respawn, so you don’t have to worry about getting banned for modifying game files.
- Uninstall high-resolution texture packs: Unless you’re playing on a 4K monitor with graphics settings cranked all the way up, you won’t notice a difference in visual quality without the high-res texture pack. This is the single easiest way to cut 15 to 20GB of space instantly, and it won’t impact your game performance at all. You can uninstall it directly through your Steam or EA App library settings for Apex.
- Remove unused language packs: Go to the language settings for Apex in your launcher, and delete all voice and text languages you don’t use. Most players only need one language, so this can free up 2 to 5GB of extra space almost immediately. You can always re-download a language pack later if you want to switch.
- Disable optional DLC you don’t play: Respawn occasionally releases single-player story DLC, like the Stories from the Outlands short campaigns, as optional downloads. If you already played them or have no interest in checking them out, you can uninstall these DLC packs separately to save an extra 3 to 4GB of space. They won’t be downloaded automatically unless you opt in, so you don’t have to worry about them coming back with future updates.
That said, you should never go into your game files and delete things manually to save space. It’s really easy to accidentally delete a core game file that will cause crashes, or even trigger the anti-cheat system if you modify the wrong thing. Always make any changes directly through your official launcher, and run a game file verification after you make tweaks to make sure everything is still working correctly. I did these exact tweaks last month when my 500GB SSD was almost full, and I cut my Apex install size from 92GB to 71GB without any noticeable drop in visual quality on my 1440p 144Hz monitor. I still get 120+ FPS in matches, and all my skins load correctly, so it’s a total win if you’re short on space.
Extra Storage Tips to Avoid Headaches With Future Apex Updates
Apex’s install size will only grow as Respawn adds new maps, characters, and modes in future seasons, so it’s smart to plan ahead to avoid last-minute storage headaches when a new update drops. These simple tips will help you make sure you never have to pause your grind to free up space right when a new season launches.
Always leave at least 20GB of free space on the drive you have Apex installed on to account for seasonal updates and temporary download files. I’ve had friends who had exactly 1GB of free space left on their drive when a new season dropped, and they had to spend an hour moving other games to a different drive before they could install the update.
If you have both an SSD and an HDD in your setup, install Apex on your SSD if you have room. Load times are 3 to 4 times faster on an SSD, so you’ll get into matches faster, and you won’t get stuck on the loading screen while the rest of your squad is already looting. You can install it on an HDD if you don’t have SSD space, but you’ll have much longer load times and occasional stutter when loading new areas of the map.
Never install Apex on a standard external USB drive unless it’s a high-speed USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt drive. Standard USB 2.0 or 3.0 drives don’t have fast enough read speeds to run the game smoothly, so you’ll get constant crashes, texture pop-ins, and you’ll often get kicked from matches before you finish loading in. It’s not worth the hassle just to save space on your internal drive. If you haven’t played Apex in 6 months or more, it’s often faster to uninstall the old version and re-download the latest full build instead of installing 4+ patches in a row. Multiple incremental updates can leave behind old unused files that take up extra space, so a fresh install will usually be smaller and run better than an old install that’s been updated dozens of times.
At the end of the day, the answer to how big is Apex Legends PC depends on a few factors, from your launcher of choice to the optional add-ons you have enabled. For most players, a standard install will sit between 80 and 90GB, with a little extra space added each season as new content drops. If you plan ahead and leave 100GB of free space before you first download the game, you won’t run into any annoying install errors. If you’re tight on storage, the official tweaks we covered can cut your install size by up to 25GB without hurting your gameplay experience at all. Just remember to leave extra room for future updates, and you’ll be able to drop into King’s Canyon, World’s Edge, or any other map whenever you want without worrying about storage issues.