Gears of War: E-Day went live for every Game Pass Ultimate subscriber this morning, and on an Xbox Series S it takes up roughly a third of the drive before you have installed anything else. That is the storage problem this season in one example. Between the October releases already out, Kingdom Hearts landing on Switch 2 on Thursday, and Nintendo’s November and December dates, a lot of owners are about to discover that the “1TB” or “512GB” on the box is not the number that matters.
So we put the season’s big install sizes next to the space each console actually gives you. Wherever we could, we took sizes from the platform stores themselves: Microsoft’s own store catalog for Xbox, and Nintendo’s product pages and eShop listings for Switch 2. Sony does not show file sizes on the web version of PlayStation Store, so the PS5 figures come from pre-load reports, and we say which ones. Usable-space figures come from hands-on measurements published by IGN, Digital Trends, TechRadar (via Push Square) and Polygon, since the platform holders’ spec sheets list advertised capacity rather than the space left after the system takes its share.
How much space each console really gives you
| Console | Advertised | Usable for games | Measured by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Switch 2 | 256GB | About 228–230GB after the day-one update | Polygon |
| Xbox Series S (512GB) | 512GB | 364GB | IGN |
| PS5 (original 2020 model) | 825GB | About 667GB | Digital Trends, Push Square |
| Xbox Series X (1TB) | 1TB | 802GB | IGN, Windows Central |
| PS5 Slim (1TB) | 1TB | About 842GB (830.6GB with Astro’s Playroom installed) | Digital Trends |
| PS5 Pro (2TB) | 2TB | About 1.89TB | TechRadar via Push Square |
The spread is wider than the box labels suggest. The base PS5 and the Series S lose roughly a fifth or more of their advertised capacity to the system, while the PS5 Pro hands over about 94.5 percent of its drive, according to TechRadar’s measurement. Switch 2 sits at the small end in absolute terms, and Polygon’s launch-day test is worth remembering for anyone upgrading from a first Switch: after transferring and redownloading a full Switch library, its unit was down to 160GB free before a single Switch 2 game was installed.
The fall 2026 install sizes, from the stores where we could get them
| Game | Platform | Install / download size | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom Hearts Collection [I～III] | Switch 2 | 131GB (54.2 + 26.8 + 45.2GB across the three games) | Nintendo eShop estimate, reported by Nintendo Life |
| Gears of War: E-Day | Xbox Series X|S | 124.0GB | Microsoft Store catalog, Oct. 6 (Pure Xbox reported 120.5GB at pre-install on Sept. 29) |
| Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve | Xbox Series X|S | 112.2GB | Microsoft Store catalog, Oct. 6 |
| Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve | PS5 | About 101.2GB | PSPrices store listing; earlier pre-load listings ranged from 88GB to 109GB |
| Ghost of Yōtei | PS5 | 85.1GB at launch, plus a 29GB patch on Sept. 22 | Pre-load data via Game Rant; patch via Push Square |
| Marvel’s Wolverine | PS5 | 79.4GB | PlayStation Game Size pre-load data via Beebom |
| Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered | Xbox Series X|S | 68.3GB | Microsoft Store catalog, Oct. 6 |
| Monster Hunter Wilds (Dec. 4) | Switch 2 | 39.1GB (estimated) | Nintendo.com product page |
| Star Wars: Galactic Racer | Xbox Series X|S | 37.0GB | Microsoft Store catalog, matching Bespin Bulletin’s pre-load figure |
| Star Wars: Galactic Racer | PS5 | 36.0GB | Pre-load data via Bespin Bulletin |
| The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nov. 5) | Switch 2 | 27GB (estimated) | Nintendo.com product page |
| Mario Kart World | Switch 2 | 22.2GB | Nintendo.com product page |
| Nintendo Switch Sports Resort (Oct. 22) | Switch 2 | 16GB (estimated) | Nintendo.com product page and eShop |
| Minecraft Dungeons II | Xbox Series X|S | 9.1GB | Microsoft Store catalog, Oct. 6 |
One quirk in that table deserves a note. Microsoft’s catalog lists Gears of War: E-Day at 124.0GB on console this morning, a little above the 120.5GB Pure Xbox recorded when pre-installs opened a week ago, which is consistent with the launch patch The Coalition shipped on Oct. 5. The good news for tight drives is that E-Day has an install manager: Pure Xbox reports that its Manage screen lets you pick Campaign, Horde Siege and Versus separately, so a campaign-only player does not have to keep the multiplayer modes installed. We covered which Game Pass tier unlocks the game in our E-Day early access guide.
The PS5 column is the least precise, and that is a limit of the data rather than a choice. Pre-load trackers read sizes from Sony’s servers before launch, and the numbers move with day-one patches; Ace Combat 8’s PS5 listing has been reported at three different sizes since pre-loads opened. Ghost of Yōtei is the clearest case where the launch figure is out of date, because the 29GB update Push Square spotted on Sept. 22 prepared the game for the Complete Edition content that went live on Oct. 1. For PS5 owners the console’s own Storage screen is the only number to trust.
What actually fits: the season’s games against each drive
| Console | Usable space | Season’s big games on that platform | Combined size | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switch 2 | About 228–230GB | Kingdom Hearts Collection, Monster Hunter Wilds, Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart World, Switch Sports Resort | 235.3GB | None: about 5–7GB short |
| Switch 2 (without Kingdom Hearts) | About 228–230GB | The other four | 104.3GB | About 124–126GB |
| Xbox Series S (512GB) | 364GB | Gears of War: E-Day, Ace Combat 8, Dynasty Warriors 3 Remastered, Galactic Racer, Minecraft Dungeons II | 350.6GB | About 13.4GB |
| Xbox Series X (1TB) | 802GB | Same five | 350.6GB | About 451GB |
| PS5 (original) | About 667GB | Ace Combat 8, Ghost of Yōtei (launch size), Wolverine, Galactic Racer | About 301.7GB | About 365GB |
| PS5 Slim (1TB) | About 842GB | Same four | About 301.7GB | About 540GB |
| PS5 Pro (2TB) | About 1.89TB | Same four | About 301.7GB | About 1.59TB |
The Switch 2 row is the one that surprised us. Nintendo’s own first-party lineup for the next two months, plus Kingdom Hearts, adds up to slightly more than the space a fresh console offers, and that is before a single save file, screenshot or transferred Switch game. Kingdom Hearts alone takes about 57 percent of the available internal storage, and its physical release is a Game-Key Card rather than a cartridge holding the full game; we went through the platform differences in our Kingdom Hearts Collection guide. Take it out of the picture and the remaining four Nintendo releases need only about 104GB, which a new Switch 2 handles comfortably.
On Xbox, the Series S technically fits all five of this season’s big Series X|S releases, but with about 13GB to spare, a single Game Pass download or a large patch would push it over. Gears of War: E-Day by itself takes about 34 percent of the Series S drive. The Series X and every PS5 model have room for their platform’s full slate, although the original PS5’s 667GB will feel crowded quickly for anyone who also keeps a Call of Duty or a big live-service game installed alongside these.
Expanding storage: the rules are different on each console
If the tables above describe your console, extra storage is the fix, but each platform holder limits what you can play from where. The details matter because the cheapest drive is not always one that runs current-generation games.
| Console | Expansion that can run current-gen games | What a cheaper USB drive can do | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS5 / PS5 Pro | M.2 NVMe SSD in the internal slot: PCIe Gen4 x4, 250GB to 8TB, 5,500MB/s or faster recommended, heatsink required | Store PS5 games, but they must be copied back to console storage or M.2 to play; PS4 games can run from USB | PlayStation Support M.2 guide |
| Xbox Series X|S | Storage Expansion Card in the rear slot | Store Series X|S games (move back to play); Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games play directly from USB | Xbox Support external storage page |
| Switch 2 | microSD Express card, up to 2TB | Standard microSD cards cannot hold games or saves; they can only be used to import screenshots and videos from a Switch | Nintendo Support microSD compatibility page |
Sony’s M.2 installation guide is also explicit that all of a game’s data has to sit in one place, so you cannot split a 100GB install between the internal drive and an expansion SSD, and that SATA M.2 drives are not supported. Microsoft’s external storage page makes the same distinction between storing and playing Series X|S-optimized games. Nintendo’s microSD compatibility article is the one Switch upgraders most often miss, because the old microSD card from a first Switch will not carry over as game storage.
The timing is not ideal. As we covered in our look at Micron’s latest outlook, memory and storage prices have already pushed console hardware up this year, and Micron expects supply to be tighter in 2027 and 2028 than it is now. That does not tell you what a specific SSD or card will cost next month, but it does argue against assuming storage will get cheaper soon.
Who needs to act before the next big download
| If you own… | And you plan to play… | What we would do |
|---|---|---|
| Switch 2 with a transferred Switch library | Kingdom Hearts Collection | Check free space before Oct. 8. Plan for a microSD Express card, or archive Switch 1 games you are not playing. |
| A fresh Switch 2 | Nintendo’s Oct.–Dec. releases without Kingdom Hearts | No action needed; about 104GB fits easily. |
| Xbox Series S 512GB | Gears of War: E-Day plus anything else large | Use E-Day’s install manager to skip modes you will not play, and move last-gen games to a USB drive. |
| Original PS5 | Several of this year’s big exclusives at once | Fine for now, but an M.2 drive is the long-term answer; check the console’s Storage screen, not launch-day figures. |
| Series X, PS5 Slim or PS5 Pro | This season’s releases | Room to spare for the games above. |
This season’s remasters and collections are as large as many of its new releases, and the consoles with the smallest drives feel that first. Series S owners who claimed old discs through Xbox’s disc-to-digital program have one consolation, because those Xbox One-era games can run from an inexpensive USB drive and free the internal SSD for E-Day. Switch 2 owners have no equivalent shortcut, which makes Kingdom Hearts’ Thursday release the moment to check the storage screen.