Helldivers 2 PC Version Will Take Up 85% Less Space
An unexpected yet exciting development has occurred for Helldivers 2. Arrowhead, in collaboration with Nixxes, has significantly reduced the size of the PC version of the game thanks to technical optimizations. This move, which has been the subject of complaints for years about the game’s “too much space,” was a welcome surprise for both players facing storage constraints and those looking for a more streamlined update process.
Helldivers 2 Massive Size Update
The Helldivers 2 team has reduced the game’s PC install size from around 154GB to approximately 23GB, achieving a reduction of nearly 85%. The studio stated that in the past, it had been forced to duplicate assets to maintain fast load times for HDD users, but with the proliferation of SSDs, this method has become unnecessary. This has resulted in significant storage savings.
Players can also rest assured about Helldivers 2’s loading times. Arrowhead explained that most loading times are actually caused by the creation of the levels, not by searching for assets on disk. Therefore, the game’s optimization won’t negatively impact the overall experience, and should only make a difference of a few seconds, even for HDD users.
The new build, currently available as a “slim version” on Steam, has been released as a technical beta for players to test on their own. Arrowhead added that if issues arise, players can revert to the previous version at any time. This allows Helldivers 2 players to save significant space at a low risk.
The studio announced that if testing progresses smoothly, this new, slimmed-down version of Helldivers 2 will become the default for all users in 2026. Support for the old build will be discontinued in the long term. This will make both updates and development more efficient, and players will be completely free of unnecessary files.
