Why is Genshin Impact 18 GB?

At around 18GB on PC and mobile, Genshin Impact‘s beefy file dimension catches some players off guard. For context, that dwarfs the average mobile game size of 40MB. So what explains this open world RPG‘s titanic storage appetite? After analyzing Genshin Impact‘s files, here‘s the breakdown:

Extremely High-Fidelity Graphics Assets

Genshin features intricate 3D models and environments rendered in up to 4K resolution. Key assets that contribute to the large file size:

• Highly detailed character and enemy models – popular characters like Ganyu have over 70,000 polygon faces with 4K texture maps.
• Elaborate worldspaces like the Golden Apple Archipelago and Chasm underground areas.
• Intricate environmental objects like furnishings, flora, mineral formations, etc.

As per gaming hardware site GPUcheck, Genshin Impact demands at least 2GB of video RAM on PC gaming rigs to smoothly handle these cutting-edge graphics. That‘s significantly greater than average mobile games.

Multi-Language Voice Acting and Lengthy Cutscenes

Genshin features substantial voice acting and animated cutscenes. The heap of audio and video files alone adds bulk:

• Full voice acting in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English for archon and story quests.
• Multiple character idle, combat, and contextual voice lines to bring personas to life.
• Lengthy animated cutscenes rendered in-engine ranging from a few megabytes to over 600 MBs each.

Offering 4 language voice over packs then multiplies the storage footprint. Audio connoisseurs estimate voice acting occupies between 6-10+ GB of space. Deleting unused languages can claw back gigs.

Accumulation of Game Updates and Content Patches

Patches in Genshin tend to additively layer on content rather than replace old data. For example, the launch of Sumeru in v3.0 added the new region‘s landscape and character assets without removing previous regions like Liyue or Monstadt. This bloats the cumulative install size with each major update.

Cross-Platform Development Compromises

As a true triple-A title built for PC, consoles and mobile, Genshin is highly complex to optimize across platforms. Unique platform-specific assets tailored for PS5 vs iPhone may duplicate some data compared to single platform games. Porting from Unity also incurs a moderate storage tax compared to native mobile engines like Unreal.

Massive Handcrafted Open World Spaces

Genshin‘s sprawling continent features stunning, unique environments not procedurally generated. Developing these intricate 3D spaces and terrain by hand requires more designer effort compared to the algorithmic worlds common in other open world franchises like Elder Scrolls.

Some back-of-the-envelope estimates peg the explorable spaces:

For reference, these land areas compare to entire real life cities in scale. That‘s a lot of bespoke landscape data.

Future Proofing for Forthcoming Updates

As an evolving games-as-a-service product, Genshin Impact reserves ample storage cushion for future regions, quests, characters and features in the pipeline like housing, the hydro region Fontaine, Dendro powers, the Chasm underground and even minigames.

MiHoYo likely opts to overprovision assets now rather than tightly pack data to risk stability issues or content vaulting later down the road. Their priority is ensuring a smooth user experience for years to come.

So while 18GB makes headlines, it‘s not outrageous given Genshin Impact‘s unrivaled production values across graphics, sound, story, and scope. Clearing the cache periodically and removing unused language packs helps lighten the load. But most Travelers will need at least 25GB set aside to comfortably roam Teyvat‘s growing frontiers update after update in 2023 and beyond.