Is 4 TB a lot of storage for gaming and content creation in 2024? Absolutely.
As an avid gamer and video creator myself, I can definitively say 4TB is a massive amount of storage by today‘s standards. To put into perspective – most standard laptops and pre-built PCs still come with pitiful 500GB to 1TB hard drives. Jumping up to 4,000GB is no small upgrade.
According to Steam‘s monthly hardware survey, the most common storage amount amongst gamers is still 1TB at about 28% of users. Compare that to the 4TB range, which less than 5% of gamers have installed. So yes, 4TB is well above what most players are working with.
Just how much can you store on 4TB?
With 4TB of space, here‘s how much games and video content you could store:
- 40-50+ modern AAA games – Considering titles like Call of Duty now require 150+ GB install sizes.
- 100-200+ indie or older games – Retro titles can squeeze into just a few GBs.
- Hundreds of game save files and mods – Replaying games eats storage too!
- 500+ hours of 4K/8K video footage – Or around 50-100 completed creative projects.
So while the average user might not need 4TB today, gamers and content creators can easily take advantage of the massive space for their libraries.
| Content Type | Estimate Capacity |
|---|---|
| AAA Games | 40-50 games |
| Indie Games | 100-200 games |
| Game Saves & Mods | Tens of thousands |
| 4K Video Footage | Over 500 hours |
| Creative Projects | 50-100 projects |
Game install sizes are ballooning fast
Install sizes for major game franchises have absolutely exploded over the past decade as graphics and textures improve:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) – 12GB
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020) – 175GB
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) – 150GB
- The Witcher 3 w/ DLC (2015) – 80GB
Based on analysis by the Gaming Scan blog, average mainstream game install sizes have tripled from around 15GB in 2010 to nearly 50GB by 2022.
| Year | Avg. Top Game Install Size |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 15GB |
| 2015 | 35GB |
| 2022 | 50GB |
And the latest generation of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles are only exacerbating storage needs with their 50-100+ GB system updates. When Call of Duty and your operating system try to squeeze onto the same drive – space gets tight!
So with games and updates repeatedly ballooning in size, 4TB gives gamers much needed breathing room before having to upgrade or shuffle games on and off the drive.
How long would a 4TB drive last the average gamer?
Given the rate that install sizes are growing, we can conservatively forecast how long a spacious 4TB drive would satisfy storage needs:
- 2022 – Store 100+ indie/retro games or 40 AAA titles
- 2023 – Store 80+ indie games or 35 AAA titles
- 2024 – Store 65+ indie games or 30 AAA titles
You also have to consider a gamer‘s personal habits – are you actively playing and deleting old games or just forever accumulating a backlog?
But even by modest estimates, a 2023 gamer could likely squeak 5+ years out of a high capacity 4TB drive before needing another storage upgrade. Not too shabby by tech standards!
Why gamers and creators need high capacity drives
Between addictive gaming backlogs and video editing render files, our appetite for storage is insatiable. Smaller SSDs fill up faster than ever with today‘s bloated software. Large 4TB+ drives give us flexibility:
- Future proofing – Gets you through years of persisting software bloat.
- Build libraries – Collect entire gaming catalogs across decades and genres.
- Mod heavily – Total conversion mods can add 100GB+ per game.
- Workspaces – Store all your project files locally without shuffling.
- Quick access – Hot swap massive personal media libraries.
While hard drive capacities will inevitably continue climbing – 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB+ sizes now strike an accessible capacity-to-price balance for enthusiasts. They may feel indulgent today, but tomorrow your game library will thank you.
Key takeaways
- Yes, 4TB is an extremely large storage capacity by 2023 standards
- But gamers and creators now regularly push drives to the limit
- Average AAA game install sizes now exceed 100GB
- 4TB enables 40+ huge game installs or 500+ hours of 4K footage
- Game install sizes will only continue ballooning
- 4TB future proofs your storage for 5+ years potentially
So while not everyone needs multiple terabytes of storage, for hardcore gamers and content producers – drives in the 4TB+ range help tame unruly modern game, video, and media libraries. Make no mistake, in the near future 8TB consumer hard drives could become a reality!
What has your experience been managing storage as a gamer or creator? Do you have a storage capacity limit that you aim for when making upgrades? I‘d love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
