If you’ve been scrolling game store pages debating whether to pick up No Man’s Sky for your next open world playthrough, one of the first practical questions you’ll ask is how many gbs is No Man’s Sky. Nothing kills the excitement of a new game faster than getting halfway through a download and seeing a “storage full” error pop up, forcing you to delete old screenshots, save files, or even other games you haven’t touched in months. I’ve been there too—last year I tried to install it on my launch Switch without checking size first, and ended up having to archive three other indie titles just to make room. This guide breaks down exact storage requirements across every platform, plus extra space you’ll need to account for for updates, mods, and save files.
How Many GBs Is No Man’s Sky By Platform?
If you’re looking for a hard number for how many gbs is No Man’s Sky on your specific device, here’s the latest breakdown as of recent free content updates. Keep in mind these numbers are for the base, unmodded game with no extra save data or optional texture packs installed. Base install sizes only account for the vanilla, unmodded game with no extra save files, so you’ll want to leave extra room for other content we’ll cover later.
For PC users downloading via Steam or Epic Games Store, the base install sits at roughly 18GB. That’s surprisingly small for a game with endless exploration, base building, and multiplayer support, but it’s thanks to the game’s procedural generation system that doesn’t store pre-made planet assets. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S users can expect a 20GB base install, while PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions clock in around 19GB and 18GB respectively. The Nintendo Switch version is the smallest at just 12GB, thanks to compressed audio and optimized lower-resolution textures that don’t cut any core gameplay content.
PlayStation and Xbox users will need extra temporary storage for patch downloads, even if the final install size is small. Consoles typically download the full patch file first before replacing old game assets, so you might need 2-4GB of extra free space temporarily when installing updates. I learned this the hard way when a 3GB No Man’s Sky update failed three times because I only had 2GB of free space left on my PS5.
Extra Storage Space You Need To Plan For Beyond The Base Install
The base install size is just the starting point for most players, especially if you plan to mod the game, play for hundreds of hours, or download all free content updates as they drop. It’s a good rule of thumb to leave at least 10GB of extra free space for the game to grow over time, rather than only leaving exactly the base install size free on your drive.
High-resolution texture packs for PC can add up to 25GB of extra storage on their own, if you choose to install them. These packs are optional, and only worth downloading if you play on a 4K monitor with a high-end graphics card. For most players playing on 1080p or 1440p monitors, the default textures look more than good enough and won’t take up extra space. Save files are relatively small, but if you have multiple playthroughs, hundreds of custom base builds, and thousands of in-game screenshots saved, you could accumulate 1-3GB of extra save data over time.
The most common extra storage drains for No Man’s Sky include:
- Player-created build saves and custom world screenshots captured in-game
- High-resolution texture, shader, and gameplay mods for PC users
- Seasonal free content updates released by Hello Games every 3-6 months
- Multiplayer session cache files from playing with friends across different servers
Hello Games has released 20+ major free updates since the game launched, each adding between 1-4GB of new content, so you can expect the base install size to grow slowly over the next few years as well. You don’t need to download every update immediately, but most players choose to so they can access new features like space expeditions, new building parts, and expanded story content.
How To Free Up Space For No Man’s Sky Without Deleting Other Games
If you’re short on storage but don’t want to delete other games you still play, there are a few easy fixes to make room for No Man’s Sky without sacrificing your existing library. These tips work across all platforms, and only take a few minutes to implement.
Most modern consoles support external USB 3.0 hard drives that run games just as fast as internal storage for older titles. If you have a PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or Switch, you can move all your older, less frequently played games to an external 1TB or 2TB hard drive, leaving your fast internal SSD free for games you’re actively playing, including No Man’s Sky. I use a cheap 2TB external drive for my PS5, and it runs all my PS4 games completely smoothly, no lag or load time issues at all.
For PC users, you can free up space quickly by clearing your Steam or Epic Games download cache, deleting old mod files for games you no longer play, and moving larger, less frequently played games to a secondary HDD. You don’t need to install No Man’s Sky on your fastest SSD, either— it runs perfectly well on a standard HDD if you don’t mind slightly longer load times when warping between planets.
If you really don’t have any extra space to spare, you can also skip installing optional high-resolution texture packs, and turn off automatic in-game screenshot capture to cut down on extra save file size. These small changes won’t impact your gameplay experience much, but they can save you 10+ GB of storage space in the long run.
Common Myths About No Man’s Sky Storage Size Debunked
There’s a lot of misinformation floating around online about No Man’s Sky’s storage requirements, mostly because people don’t understand how its procedural generation system works. I’ve seen people claim the game takes up 100GB+ of space, or that the Switch version cuts half the content to fit on the cartridge, and none of that is true.
The biggest myth I see regularly is that the game needs hundreds of gigabytes of storage because it has 18 quintillion explorable planets. That’s completely false. No Man’s Sky’s procedural generation system means the game never stores pre-made assets for its 18 quintillion planets—it generates every planet, creature, and terrain feature on the fly when you visit it, using a set of core algorithms and small asset packs. That’s why the base install size stays so small, even after years of content updates.
Another common myth is that installing mods will bloat the game’s file size so much it won’t run properly. Most small gameplay mods, like quality of life fixes, new building parts, or custom ship skins, are only a few megabytes in size, and won’t add any noticeable amount of storage usage. Only large texture overhauls and total conversion mods add significant storage space, and those are always optional downloads you can choose to skip if you’re short on space.
There’s also a myth that the Switch version is missing large chunks of content to keep the file size small. That’s not true either. The Switch version has all the same gameplay content, story missions, free updates, and multiplayer support as the PC and console versions. The only differences are compressed audio and lower resolution textures that are optimized for the Switch’s smaller screen, so you won’t even notice the difference when playing on the go.
At the end of the day, knowing how many gbs is No Man’s Sky before you hit download will save you a lot of frustration and last-minute file deleting. The base install size is surprisingly small for how much content the game offers, but it never hurts to leave 10-15GB of extra free space for future updates, mods, or your own save files. Whether you’re playing on a handheld Switch or a high-end gaming PC, you don’t need a ton of empty storage to dive into exploring its endless universe, as long as you plan ahead a little.
