Video Games

Genshin Impact updates will need less disc space for downloading soon

A new update makes storage space management much easier

Marco Wutz

Genshin Impact updates will need less disc space for downloading soon
Genshin Impact updates will need less disc space for downloading soon /

HoYoverse has been rolling out a steady series of quality-of-life updates for Genshin Impact over the past couple of months, streamlining the experience for players of the open-world RPG. In the near future, another major change will be made that should influence everyone’s experience with the PC version of the game in a positive way, though it’s not one that you’ll notice when you’re actually playing – no, this technical improvement will make things better before you even log in.

The Shanghai-based developer is currently testing a launcher update that will massively reduce the amount of storage space that needs to be reserved for downloading patches of the game – if you’re having trouble freeing up enough space every six weeks to accommodate the new version of the popular title, then this patch is going to offer a major improvement for you.

Genshin Impact Nahida.
Looks like Nahida is giving Irminsul a little upgrade to make our lives better / HoYoverse

At the moment, downloading and installing a Genshin Impact update requires around double the amount of free space than the downloaded file’s actual size for decompression. This change, which is currently being tested with a limited number of users, doesn’t completely eliminate the need for a bit of overflow space, but it significantly reduces it to the point where you won’t longer have to worry about uninstalling other games just to make room for the newest Genshin Impact version – at least if you’re not planning things incredibly tight.

Screenshot of the Genshin Impact launcher showing update 4.5's download size.
This is how things look for everyone not benefiting from the new update / HoYoverse

As you can see from the screenshot above, I was not selected for the test – the pre-load for the update is 5.28GB, but the required space is 11.04GB.

Keep in mind that this change hasn’t been rolled out to everyone just yet, so if you didn’t fall into the group of randomly selected testers, you’ll still need to do some space management for the upcoming release of update 4.5 with Chiori. We can only hope that it’ll be available for everyone once Arlecchino comes to town in update 4.6.

If you’re playing on iOS, Android, PS4, or PS5, then this change to the launcher won’t affect you in any way.

Every Genshin Impact character's age, weapon, bio and more

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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