Bold claim: Helldivers 2 now fits on your drive almost as easily as a console game, cutting 131GB of space in the process. And yes, this is real—and it changes how you think about PC storage for large titles.
Stevie Bonifield
is a news writer covering consumer tech, with a focus on hardware, gaming, and AI. He began his career at Laptop Mag, delivering news and reviews across these domains.
If your PC storage has been acting up, the latest Helldivers 2 beta update could give you relief. The development team announced on Tuesday that they’ve dramatically reduced the PC installation footprint by roughly 85 percent, freeing enough space for one or two additional sizable games.
On the game’s Steam page, the team detailed their slimming efforts while also introducing new content:
“ Our long‑term goal has always been to bring the PC installation size much closer to the console versions. We’re happy to report that, thanks to our partners at Nixxes, we’ve achieved that goal sooner than expected. By fully de-duplicating our data, we reduced the PC installation size from approximately 154GB to about 23GB, yielding a total saving of around 131GB.”
The team cautioned that load times should experience only a minimal impact—“seconds at most.” The original heft was largely due to duplicated asset data intended to speed up loading on mechanical hard drives, a feature that reportedly benefited only about 11 percent of Helldivers 2 players.
However, the update notes make a key point: Helldivers 2’s load times are now understood to be driven mainly by level generation rather than asset loading. As a result, duplicating assets offered little advantage and imposed a heavier file size for everyone, even if it helped a small subset of players.
Anyone playing the PC version can opt into the technical public beta on Steam to experience the new “slim” version. This version is set to become the default once beta testing wraps up and any remaining issues are resolved.
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— Stevie Bonifield
