Xbox 500GB vs 1TB (Enough storage? How many games will fit?)


The original Xbox One console came with a storage capacity of 500GB. Games take a lot of space, especially when you use game discs to install them. If you like playing games, you might be wondering if the Xbox One with a 500GB hard drive will hold most of the games you like.

So, is 500GB enough storage for Xbox One? 500GB is not enough space to store many games. Most games, especially exclusive tiles, require space between 30GB and 60GB. You should also note that when you buy an Xbox One with 500GB storage, it does not mean that you have 500GB for games only. The operating system and other applications will take up some space leaving you with close to 300GB.

The 500GB also limits you to the type of games you can install because some games take up more than 100GB of space. If the storage is full, you have to get an external hard drive or uninstall some games that you no longer play.

Enough storage space is crucial in gaming, and many gamers hate deleting or uninstalling games because of a lack of space. When getting a new gaming console, you need to make sure you choose the one with enough space to fit all your favorite games.

The more storage space you have on your gaming console, the more games you can install and play. If you like playing many games across different genres, you might be wondering how many of them you can fit in your 500GB Xbox One.

The number of Xbox games you can install in a 500GB hard drive varies because games come in different sizes. You also do not get 500GB of storage space because other apps also take up some of that space. You have the option of using external hard drives to install more games. However, if you do not want to use external hard drives, you can delete some of the games you do not play often.

Depending on the size of games you want to install in your Xbox One, a 500GB hard drive can fit close to 14 games. Some games can take 50GB of space while others only 1GB or 2GB of space. Not all the games you will install in your Xbox One games will need the same space because some will take more than others. For example, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare needs 48GB of storage space while Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China only needs 3GB of storage space.

One mistake that many gamers make when buying a new gaming console is thinking the storage space written on the package is the space you will get for all your games. The Xbox One has a 500GB hard drive, but some of that space is already taken by preinstalled apps and the operating system.

Your new Xbox One comes with several apps such as Amazon Prime, Skype, EA Play, and Halo Channel, among others. This means you will only get around 325GB of storage space for your games. Therefore, you have to check the size of games you want to install before you buy them.

If you have an Xbox One with a 500GB hard drive and you want to install more games, you can use an external hard drive. You can purchase an external drive with a 1TB or 2TB storage space, depending on how many games you want to play on your Xbox. You can then install more games on the external hard drive and play them whenever you want.

You should buy an external hard drive that will perform well and last long. Getting an average external drive can ruin your gaming experience by increasing waiting times and creating slow game responsiveness.

One drastic measure to increase storage space in your Xbox One is to uninstall some games that you no longer play or play less frequently. You can also uninstall some of the apps that you are not using. However, you do not lose any data from the uninstalled game because if in the future you want to reinstall that game, you will still find the data for your previous gameplay. You can use smart storage where Xbox decides which items you can delete if your hard drive is getting too full.

Is 1TB Enough for Xbox?

Many companies are making new generation consoles with a storage capacity of 1TB. If your previous Xbox console had 500GB of storage space, you might be wondering if it would be worth it to buy a new Xbox console with 1TB storage space.

A 1TB storage space is enough for a casual gamer, but it is not enough for an intense gamer. This is because big titles take more space than before. Currently, a 1TB storage space is the bare minimum that gamers have come to expect with every release of a new generation gaming console.

The new generation Xbox console launched in November 2020, known as the Xbox Series X, has a storage capacity of 1TB. However, due to numerous apps and the operating system, you only get 802GB of storage space to install games. Compared to space you have available on a 500GB Xbox, 1TB is enough. You can install several games that need more than 100GB of storage space. If you like to play games that only need 50GB or less, you will have enough space to install many games.

Many games released recently take a lot of space compared to old games released ten or five years ago. For example, the Red Dead Redemption 2 released in 2018 needs 144GB of storage space, requiring a gaming console with enough storage space. If you install the Red Dead Redemption 2 on a console with 500GB of storage space, you will be left with space for 3 or 4 games. The 1TB storage space allows you to install multiple games that require more than 100GB of storage space each.

In addition to gaming, you can use your Xbox console to stream movies and television shows from streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix. If you do not want to stream the episodes of a particular television show, you can download them and watch them later. Therefore, if you do not have many games on your Xbox console, you can use the extra storage space to download movies and TV shows.

A lot of gamers record their games and share them with people on social media. If you always record your gaming sessions, you need a gaming console with enough storage space to record videos. Gaming sessions can last for many hours, and if you do not have enough space in your Xbox, you will not record everything you wanted to.

A 1TB hard drive is enough to record a few videos at a time; however, you have to delete old videos to create new space. If you do not want to delete old videos, you should get an external hard drive to store more videos.

If you are an intense gamer, you might need more space since the 1TB storage space might be too little. You can purchase an external hard drive to store more games and data after the internal storage drive of your console is full. The external drive saves you from deleting some of your favorite games and regretting it after a few days. External hard drives are affordable; therefore, you can even own more than 4TB of external storage space for your gaming.

If you do not want to store any data or games on an external hard drive, you have the option of deleting some of the games or downloading games that require small storage space. However, you should avoid deleting or uninstalling digital games because you will have to redownload the entire game to reinstall them, which takes time. Reinstalling games on a disc takes a few minutes; however, your Xbox console will have to download a few gigabytes of updates.

How Many Xbox Games Can Fit on 1TB of Storage?

A 1TB hard drive sounds like a lot of space; therefore, many gamers are purchasing gaming consoles with 1TB hard drives. If you have an Xbox console with a 1TB hard drive, you might be wondering how many games you can install on it.

The number of Xbox games you can install on a 1TB hard drive depends on the size of each game because different games have different storage space requirements. If you want more space, you have the option of getting external hard drives to store more data. You can also reduce the number of modern titles you install at one time. It is also essential to manage storage space on your Xbox console to avoid taking drastic measures such as uninstalling games and deleting items.

All Xbox games have different sizes, and some can take up small storage space, such as Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, which requires 13GB, while exclusive titles like Call of Duty: Cold War requires 136GB of storage space on your Xbox console. If you install games that require small storage space, you can even have more than 50 games on your 1TB hard drive. However, if you only install titles that require hundreds of GB, you cannot have more than eight. If you mix your games, you can install close to 20 games on your 1TB hard drive.

After buying your Xbox console with a 1TB hard drive, you might install a few games and still remain with extra space. However, as you continue gaming, your games library will likely expand, and before you know it, there is not enough space to add any more games. On Xbox Live, if you have a Gold or Game Pass account, you have access to hundreds of games, and a 1TB might not be enough, especially when Microsoft keeps updating their library. However, you can add a 1TB or 2TB external hard drive to save more games and other data.

The size of games keeps increasing because developers want their games to match the abilities of the consoles. The new generation Xbox consoles can play games at high refresh rates and high resolutions. The Xbox Series X can play some games in 4K and 120fps; however, games that can support these features require a lot of storage space.

To avoid this, you can reduce the number of modern titles you want to install on your Xbox console. There is no need to have 5 or 6 modern titles that take up the entire storage space on your console, denying you the opportunity to play better games with low storage space requirements.

However, you can manage your Xbox’s storage and free up more space for new games or apps by checking your games and apps and identifying which ones you no longer use. To quickly access the games and apps on your Xbox, select the “My Games and Apps” and select “sort by size,” and you will see all the games and apps and how much space each of them is taking on the 1TB hard drive. You can then choose all the games and apps you no longer use and delete them.

You can also manage and free up some space in your Xbox hard drive using the smart storage option. Smart storage allows your Xbox to select data that is not important for you to delete. To use smart storage, you can go to “My games and apps”, select “See all,” select “Manage,” and choose “Free up space.” Select ” Shrinkable games or Leftover add-ons” and highlight any items on the list that pops up, press the menu button on your controller and then select uninstall.

Wrap Up

A 500GB hard drive is not enough even for a casual gamer because the pre-installed apps take more than 100GB, leaving you with only 362 GB of free space for your games. If you like gaming on different gamers, this storage space cannot hold many good games, and you have to choose which games you have to install.

On the other hand, the 1TB hard drive can work for a casual gamer but not for an intense gamer. If you like playing multiple major title games, you need a hard drive with enough space to fit all the games you want.

If you want to conserve space on your Xbox’s hard drive, you should only install games you will play. You should also delete any videos you recorded or downloaded to your Xbox’s internal hard drive if you feel that the 1TB hard drive does not have enough space for you. You can buy one or two external hard drives to store more of your games and other data.

Bal Kang

Bal Kang is a technology expert based in the UK, with experience across a number of technology areas from phones, tablets, computers to gaming.

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