Ahead of the release of
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III on November 10th, Activision has preemptively provided more details about the enormous file size of the game to explain why it’s “larger than last year.”
As reported by IGN, players with early access to the game’s single-player campaign found that the total file size for
Call of Duty at installation — which also includes the
Modern Warfare II campaign
, Warzone, and
Call of Duty HQ — now comes in at 234.9GB on PlayStation 5. For PC gamers, the file size is a slightly more palatable 172GB with the
Modern Warfare II campaign and
Warzone installed.
According to
Activision’s post on X (formerly Twitter), the huge file size is “due to the increased amount of content available Day 1,” which includes map files for
Call of Duty: Warzone, support for
Modern Warfare II items, and the new open-world Zombies mode. Activision claims that the final installation size will actually be smaller than the combined previous
Call of Duty experiences, and that more information about the launch will be shared “in the coming days.”
The large file sizes we’re seeing on PC and PS5 don’t include unreleased content for
Modern Warfare III, such as the multiplayer or Zombies game modes. We should note that this doesn’t mean
Modern Warfare III alone will take up 200GB of file storage though — the base installation for
Call of Duty HQ (the central hub needed to access
Modern Warfare 2,
Modern Warfare III, and
Warzone) is roughly 50GB. Each game pack contributes to the overall file size, and can be uninstalled if you have insufficient space to install all three titles and their related content.
Still, you can’t blame fans of the series for being alarmed.
Call of Duty titles have gained
a reputation for
hogging storage space ever since the
Modern Warfare reboot was released in 2019. Activision has previously
taken steps to reduce file sizes for the game, and while it’s promising that it’s made further optimizations, the company is still asking PC gamers to
find 79GB of additional storage space for
Modern Warfare III if they already have
Warzone and HQ installed.