How Much Storage Does The PS4 Have?
The PS4 is still one of the best game consoles loved and used by tens of millions of gamers despite the release of the PS5 more than two years ago. Although the PS4 is powerful in most aspects, the weakest point is its internal storage featured by a mechanical hard drive. It’s a small storage capacity that doesn’t meet the modern storage requirements of AAA titles, and it’s also a slow and outdated storage device.
Even after the release of PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim, the storage issue remains the same. Small and slow.
Here, in this article, you’ll learn how much storage the base PS4, PS4 Pro, and PS4 Slim have, how much is the usable storage on each model, how many games you can install, and how to expand the PS4 storage with a better and faster storage device that will significantly improve the console’s performance.
How Much Storage Space Does The Base PS4 Have?
You may wonder now, how many Gigabytes (GB) does the PS4 have? Well, as for the base PS4, it comes with a 500 GB hard disk drive (HDD) that offers about 408 GB of free usable storage space, as you can see in the image below:
But why does this happen? Why don’t you get the full 500 GB of space? Well, that’s because the operating system, along with other essential files, eat through the quoted 500 GB leaving you with approximately 408 GB for which to store games.
But can you really use all the remaining 408 GB of space?
The answer is NO. You have to retain at least 10% of the total amount of the hard drive’s storage capacity for caching purposes in order to maintain the optimum performance of the hard drive (check out what happens when your PS4 hard drive is full.)
10% of the total storage space of the base PS4 hard drive means an untouched 50 GB. That simply means you can only use 358 GB for your storage purposes.
You can upgrade the PS4 stock internal hard drive with a much bigger and faster storage device that offers up to 8 TB of storage capacity and a blazing-fast speed that will make your PS4 run better than when you first used it.
You can read more about PS4 stock internal hard drive specs for additional information.
If you’re not looking to change the internal hard drive of your PS4 with a better drive (highly recommended) and you only care about additional space, you better go for an external hard drive option for your PS4.
How Much Storage Does The PS4 Pro & PS4 Slim Have?
As for the PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim, they both come with a 1 TB hard disk drive (HDD) that allows almost 862 GB of usable storage space as you can see in the image below:
You can read more on the PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim hard drive specs here.
If you want to expand the internal storage of your PS4 Pro or PS4 Slim, you can choose one of the best PS4 internal hard drive replacements that will not only give you additional storage space but also immensely improve your console’s performance.
How much space you can actually use?
Just like the case of the base PS4, you have to keep at least 10% of the total storage capacity of your PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim in order to maintain optimal performance. With a simple calculation, what remains for you to use is almost 768 GB of storage space. That amount of space is also considered too small to meet the storage requirements of modern games.
How Many Games Can The PS4 Hold?
Based on what was stated earlier, and on the fact that the average size of a modern PS4 game ranges from 50 GB to 120 GB, here’s what you should expect from the PS4 stock internal HDD to hold games:
- Base PS4: Can hold around 5 modern games only.
- PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim: Can hold around 11 modern games only.
Conclusion
The PS4 stock internal hard drive is quite small and doesn’t meet the modern storage requirements of most users. Moreover, it’s slow and outdated and after a few years of usage, it will degrade and start to generate errors. You better consider upgrading it to a more powerful and faster storage device in order to enhance your gaming experience with your console and take it to the next level.
