If you’ve ever stayed up late waiting for a new Apex Legends season to drop, only to be hit with a surprise download bar that says it’ll take three hours to complete, you know the frustration. You might have even deleted half your other game library just to make room, wondering if there’s a better way to plan ahead. If you’ve asked how big is the Apex Legends update, you’re not alone. Patch sizes can vary wildly depending on your platform, the type of update, and even what extra assets you have installed. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to plan for upcoming patches, avoid storage headaches, and get in-game as fast as possible.
How Big Is The Apex Legends Update Across Different Platforms
Patch sizes aren’t consistent across all devices, so it’s smart to know what to expect for the hardware you use most. For PC players on Steam or the EA App, minor mid-season bug fix patches usually land between 1GB and 5GB, while major seasonal updates that include new legends, map changes, or limited-time events range from 15GB to 30GB. Full map reworks or major gameplay overhauls can even hit 40GB in rare cases, and the total base game size now sits around 105GB as of the latest season.
PlayStation and Xbox players usually see slightly smaller file sizes thanks to better platform-specific compression. Minor patches for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S average 0.5GB to 4GB, while major seasonal updates land between 12GB and 28GB. Older console generations like PS4 and Xbox One tend to have slightly larger patches, usually 2GB to 5GB extra per major update, because they require extra legacy asset files to run properly.
Mobile Apex Legends players have the smallest download sizes by far. Minor patches are usually between 200MB and 1GB, while full seasonal updates range from 2GB to 5GB, depending on whether you have high-resolution texture packs enabled. Cross-progression sync files can add a small amount of extra size if you play across multiple devices, but it’s rarely more than 500MB. Pre-loading updates 24-48 hours before launch is the easiest way to avoid waiting on release day, and most platforms offer this option for major seasonal drops.
Why Apex Legends Updates Are Often Larger Than Other Battle Royales
If you’ve played other battle royales, you’ve probably noticed that Apex patches tend to be bigger than average, even for small bug fixes. The biggest reason is Respawn’s custom Source engine build, which doesn’t support delta patching as efficiently as some newer game engines. That means instead of only downloading the small parts of the game that changed, you often have to download entire asset packs that include both old and new files.
Every update also adds dozens of new assets that add up quickly. New legend voice lines, cosmetic skins, map geometry, weapon balancing files, and quality of life tweaks all take up space, even if you never interact with some of them. Apex Legends' consistent content cadence of 3 months per season means there’s far more new content added per update than many competing games that have 4 to 6 month seasonal cycles. I’ve noticed that updates with a new playable legend are almost always 20GB or bigger, while mid-season patches that only fix bugs and adjust weapon stats are rarely over 3GB.
Cross-platform support also adds extra bulk to every patch. Each update has to include compatibility files for every supported platform, input type, and region, even if you only play on one device. Anti-cheat updates are another hidden contributor, as Respawn pushes regular updates to Easy Anti-Cheat to catch new hacks and exploits, which add a lot of background files that players never see but take up significant space.
Practical Tips to Manage Apex Legends Update Storage Requirements
You don’t have to delete your entire game library every time a new season drops. There are simple, actionable steps you can take to free up space and make the update process far less stressful. Most of these tricks only take a few minutes to complete, and they’ll save you hours of frustration down the line.
- Uninstall unused high-resolution texture packs: Most platforms let you opt out of 4K texture packs if you play on a 1080p monitor or TV, which can cut your total game size by 10-15GB immediately. You can always re-download them later if you upgrade your display.
- Clear your platform's cache regularly: Corrupted cache files can make updates appear larger than they are, or cause failed installs halfway through the process. Clearing cache only takes 2-3 minutes and fixes 70% of common download issues without deleting any of your game data or settings.
- Store Apex Legends on a solid state drive (SSD): Not only do SSDs make in-game load times 3-4x faster, they also reduce the extra space needed for temporary installation files that are required during the update process. HDDs often need twice as much extra space to unpack patch files.
Never pause an Apex Legends update mid-download if you can avoid it. Pausing can corrupt the partially downloaded files, forcing you to restart the entire download from scratch and use up extra bandwidth. If you lose internet connection mid-update, verify your game files before restarting the download to make sure you don’t have to redo the whole process.
If you’re on console, you can also move Apex to an external SSD if your internal storage is full, which works just as well as an internal one for load times and update installation. Check for leftover patch files after you install an update, too. Some platforms leave temporary installation files taking up space until you restart your console or PC, which can free up 10GB or more of extra space after a big patch.
Common Apex Legends Update Size Issues and How to Fix Them
Even if you plan ahead, you might run into unexpected issues with patch sizes or installation. One of the most common complaints is that the update shows as twice the advertised size when you go to download it. That’s almost always caused by leftover corrupted files from previous patches, or your platform trying to download the full base game instead of just the delta patch. Verifying your game files before you start the download will force the platform to scan your existing files and only download the parts that have changed, cutting the size down to the actual patch size.
Another common issue is getting a “not enough storage” error even when you have more space than the listed patch size. That happens because all platforms require extra temporary space to unpack and install update files, usually equal to 1.5x the size of the patch. So if the update is 20GB, you need at least 30GB of free space to install it properly. If you’re cutting it close, delete a few unused files or move a small game to external storage before you start the download to avoid the error.
Mobile players often run into issues where the update size is bigger than advertised, too. That’s usually because your device is set to automatically download high-resolution assets by default. You can change this in the game settings to download low-resolution assets first, then download the higher quality ones later when you have more space or a better internet connection. Verifying your game files before you start any update can prevent 90% of these common size and installation errors, saving you hours of frustration.
Next time you log in and see that update notification pop up, you won’t have to panic when you wonder how big is the Apex Legends update. Knowing the average sizes per platform, why patches are so large, and how to work around storage limits will make every new season drop far less stressful. You don’t have to sacrifice your other favorite games just to play the new Apex content, a little prep work goes a long way. If you’ve had any weird update size issues before, drop a comment below and let us know how you fixed it.