Studio Rare Has Announced Sea of Thieves Size Reduction
The developer plans to shrink the file sizes of the title across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms.
Updated on Oct. 5, 2026 in Home Organization
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Studio Rare has announced an upcoming update to significantly reduce the file size of Sea of Thieves. The change follows eight years of consistent game updates that have led to increasing storage demands for players.
Why it matters
As games grow in complexity over time, the physical storage requirements on consoles and PCs can make installation difficult for users. This update aims to alleviate those challenges by optimizing the game's data footprint.
Sea of Thieves currently occupies 130GB on PC and Xbox Series X, while the PS5 version requires 80GB to 90GB. Rare targets a 50 percent reduction for 4K installs and a 30 percent reduction for non-4K and PS5 versions.
The players
Studio Rare
Studio Rare is the British video game developer responsible for creating and supporting Sea of Thieves.
The details
The developer is utilizing an optimization pass to decrease the total installation size of the game. Before the update reaches the general public, it will undergo a testing phase with insiders.
Timeline
The game has received content updates over the past 8 years.
Culture Shift
This announcement reflects a necessary shift as modern gaming balances high-fidelity visuals against the finite storage limits of consumer hardware. By optimizing code, developers are increasingly focused on improving the long-term accessibility of live-service titles.
Players will soon be able to free up significant disk space on their PC or console once the update is deployed. This optimization ensures that users can manage their storage more effectively without needing to delete other installed applications.
The takeaway
Keeping game libraries organized requires periodic maintenance, even for digital titles that rely on developer-led patches. Players should check their storage settings and prepare for the upcoming file size reduction to optimize their gaming hardware performance.
Further reading
Learn more about managing digital spaces at Home Organization.
Source note: This article includes information reported by KitGuru.
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Do you believe game developers should prioritize reducing file sizes to save storage space?
