As games continue to become more visually stunning and expansive, their install sizes are ballooning as well. When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare takes up over 100GB of precious space on your PlayStation 4‘s hard drive, managing your storage effectively becomes vital knowledge every PS4 owner needs to master.
Figure 1: PS4 Game Install Sizes Over Last Decade – via PlayStation Support Forums
With detailed instructions, tips from expert gamers, and answers to all your questions, this guide will teach you how to permanently delete games from your PS4 like a pro. Let‘s begin!
Why You Should Manage Your PS4 Game Storage
Before diving into the various methods to remove games, understanding what challenges PS4 owners face when it comes to storage constraints can help motivate the need to frequently delete games when not in active play:
PlayStation 4 Base Storage is 500GB or 1TB
The PS4 comes equipped with either a 500GB hard disk drive on launch models or 1TB drive on late-generation systems. With many AAA games now exceeding 50GB, 100GB, or even 150GB install sizes, that stock storage fills up quicker than ever when keeping 6-10 of your latest releases installed simultaneously.
Game Installs are Larger than Ever
As the above chart illustrates, game install sizes have grown substantially over the history of the PlayStation 4:
| Launch Year | Typical Game Size | 2022 Game Size |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 5 – 50GB | 75 – 150GB |
Keeping multiples of these modern installs eats through finite console storage space rapidly.
Day-One Patches Can Double Installs
In addition to base games, many titles now require massive day-one update files before you can even boot up the game for the first time. These patches effectively double a game‘s footprint.
Facing these storage challenges, regularly removing older installs you aren‘t actively playing ensures you retain enough free space for the latest must-play titles.
Now let‘s explore step-by-step how to delete games on your PS4.
Option 1: Delete PS4 Games from System Storage
The most thorough approach is to delete games directly from the main System Storage menu:
Figure 2: Navigating to Settings > Storage > System Storage on PS4
The detailed System Storage UI provides greater visibility into what games and applications are consuming most of your storage capacity. From here, you can:
- View storage breakdown by Games vs Media vs Applications
- See install sizes to target largest space hogs
- Select multiple games or all to delete
- Free up the most storage in one place
Let‘s walk through how to handle mass game deletions from System Storage:
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From your PS4 home screen, go to Settings > Storage.
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Select System Storage.
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Navigate down to Applications to see all games & apps.
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Press Options button and either:
- Choose games individually
- Select Select All to mass delete
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Click Delete and confirm by pressing OK.
Figure 3: Using Select All and Delete to remove multiple games simultaneously
Once completed, all chosen games are now permanently deleted from your PS4‘s storage drive, freeing up valuable room for new downloads!
System Storage deletion Pros & Cons
Pros
- Easy to select multiple games to delete at once
- Can view games sorted by size to optimize space freed up
- Option to mass delete all installs
Cons
- Multiple menu navigations to reach delete options
- No visibility into playtime or trophy data before deleting
Now let‘s compare an alternate method for rapid fire deletions.
Option 2: Delete Games Right from Your Home Screen
If you already know exactly which 1-2 games you want to target for removal first, deleting titles directly from the PS4‘s main home screen can save you clicks.
Figure 4: Option to delete games by pressing Options button on PS4 home screen
Follow these simple steps to swiftly delete PS4 games without digging into menus:
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From PS4 home screen, highlight game you want to delete.
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Press Options button on controller.
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Select Delete from pop-up menu.
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Confirm deletion by pressing OK.
This technique removes any chosen title with just a few button presses. Let‘s examine some notable advantages over System Storage deletions:
Pros
- Extremely fast deletion process
- Easy visibility into game names and tile sizes
Cons
- Need to delete one game at a time
- No storage usage details shown
With games deleted, your remaining storage capacity is likely looking healthier already. But we aren‘t done freeing up space just yet…
Removing Leftover Game Save Data & Patches
A common mistake PS4 owners make when removing games is failing to clear out the leftover "cruft" that gets left behind after deletion.
Game save data, update files, and DLC add-ons continue occupying your precious storage real estate even if you delete the core game files themselves from System Storage.
Figure 5: Navigating to Delete Saved Game Data
Be sure to remove all traces of deleted games by following these steps:
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From Settings, choose Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage.
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Select Delete then choose saved data for deleted games.
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Click Delete again and confirm removal by pressing OK.
Repeat for any other games with saved data you wish to permanently erase from the system.
Just be warned – do NOT delete saved data for games you still have installed! This will wipe all progress, settings, and add-on content requiring you to start the games over from scratch.
Removing Captured Videos & Screenshots
Afinal set of leftover files you can clear out to eke out a bit more free storage are any captured videos, screenshots, or gameplay clips lingering in your Capture Gallery.
Figure 6: Accessing the Capture Gallery to mass delete content
Because captures are stored locally on your PS4 by default, removing old clips you aren‘t likely to watch again can recover space in GB increments.
Here is the routine:
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Launch the Capture Gallery from your PS4‘s home screen.
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Navigate to the All folder to see your full catalog of captures.
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Press Options to bring up the action menu.
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Choose Select All > Delete to mass remove clips.
Assuming you have auto-archiving enabled, your best captures remain safely backed up to the cloud even if eliminating the local copies.
Expert Tips for Managing PS4 Storage
Hopefully by now you feel empowered to take control of your PS4‘s storage capacity by promptly deleting older games when you need room for the latest releases.
To take your installed game curation skills even further, keep these pro tips in mind whenever storage space feels constrained again:
- Credit remaining storage anxiety and enjoy an optimized game library with these helpful pointers. Let me know if any other questions come up!
Frequently Asked Questions
Still hungry for more PS4 game deletion knowledge? Here I tackle some commonly asked questions:
Do these steps work on any PS4 model?
Yup! All tutorials here apply equally to original launch models, Slim variants, PlayStation 4 Pro, and any special editions.
Can I redownload deleted games in the future?
Absolutely. Visit Library > Purchased Games to download any deleted titles again later on. Your save data also syncs back from the cloud once launching.
What about deleting disc-based games?
Disc games behave differently – simply eject the disc to uninstall them rather than deleting, since no data resides on the hard drive.
Can apps and programs be deleted too?
Yes indeed! The System Storage and home screen deletion methods described above allow removing any apps and programs, not just games.
Let‘s Recap…
If this deep dive helped you better understand the ins and outs of removing games to manage your PS4‘s storage crunch, then mission accomplished!
Feel free to bookmark this guide anytime you need to reclaim space for the next exciting game release sure to crank up the storage pressure once more.
But for now – happy gaming!
