Largest Nintendo Switch Games By Install Size, Ranked

Summary

• TSUKIHIME: A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon surpasses other visual novels on the Switch with a hefty 23 GB storage requirement.
• Resident Evil: Revelations 2’s 24.22 GB size showcases its scale and scope, greater than its predecessor.
• Mortal Kombat 1’s Nintendo Switch port is criticized for being a bloated 47.52 GB with technical issues.

While Nintendo’s cartridge-based hybrid console is home to a plethora of exceptionally optimized titles, it would be fair to say that much of its software will require additional storage other than the Nintendo Switch’s built-in hard drive to be playable.

From seemingly ‘impossible’ AAA ports to extensive remasters of seventh-generation greats, the Nintendo Switch’s high install base and hybrid nature have ensured that many developers and publishers have sought to make their titles playable on the system. However, this has sometimes resulted in under-optimization or genre-specific gargantuan file sizes being pushed onto the arguably underpowered console.

Several games that might have otherwise earned a place on this list have been omitted due to the annualized nature of their entries, defaulting to including only the latest (and largest) entries instead.

8

TSUKIHIME: A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon | 23GB

The Ground-Up Remake Of Type-Moon’s Acclaimed Visual Novel

• Released: June 26th, 2024
• Developer(s): Type-Moon
• Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
• Genre(s): Visual Novel

Despite its position as a visual novel — and one with significant eroge content at that — TSUKIHIME‘s inaugural 2000 release was undoubtedly a considerable success. As such, beyond its anime and manga adaptations, the 2024 remake TSUKIHIME: A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon has brought this gore-infused high-school visual novel to modern consoles.

However, despite its focus on narrative, music, and 2D art, Type-Moon’s ground-up remake of the original’s ‘Near Side of the Moon’ routes takes up a fairly extensive 23 GB of storage on Nintendo Switch. Considering that many other visual novels on Nintendo’s hybrid system can be compressed into a size in the single digits, and the concentrated efforts of TSUKIHIME: A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon to deliver only one-half of the original TSUKIHIME experience, Type-Moon’s school-focused interactive fiction remains surprisingly large.

7

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 | 24.22GB

A Visually Striking Sequel To The Once 3DS-Exclusive Horror Subseries

Considering the original Resident Evil: Revelations‘ place as a once-upon-a-time exclusive experience on Nintendo’s 3DS handheld, and its sequel skipping eighth-generation Nintendo hardware altogether, Resident Evil: Revelations 2‘s 2017 release on Nintendo Switch was seemingly a landmark moment for the console.

While not following up on the narrative strands of the subseries’ inaugural title, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 continues the original’s episodic format and moving-while-shooting mechanics to bolster the third-person horror experience. Yet, considering that Resident Evil: Revelations — even with the HD textures of its 2013 re-release — takes up just over 12 GB of storage on the Nintendo Switch, the comparatively gargantuan 24.22 gigabytes needed to play Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is a testament to its ballooned scope and scale.

6

L.A. Noire | 28.14GB

An Expansive Remaster Of A Rockstar Games Period Piece

While Nintendo’s hybrid console did not find its vast library filled with a copy of Rockstar Games’ best-selling open-world installment Grand Theft Auto 5, that is not to say that the development and publishing titan did not find a place for any of their software on the Nintendo Switch.

Originally developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, L.A. Noire‘s motion-capture-infused interrogations and third-person crime-fighting were critically and commercially acclaimed upon its original 2011 release. However, with the title’s 2017 re-release boasting a new set of HD textures and an improved lighting engine, the Los Angeles-set action-adventure title found a new selection of homes on Microsoft and Sony’s eighth-generation consoles alongside Nintendo’s hybrid hardware.

Considering that the collective storage required for all three third-person open-world titles contained within Rockstar’s 2021 re-release Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition sits at an understandable 25 GB, L.A Noire‘s expansive 28.14 gigabytes required puts into perspective everything contained within its 2017 re-release.

5

Apex Legends | 30GB

Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall-Inspired Free-To-Play Battle Royale FPS

With 25 diverse Legends in its roster for players to utilize through its Battle Royale and Arena Shooter gameplay, respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall-inspired FPS has remained a solid free-to-play title on Nintendo’s hybrid console since its 2021 Nintendo Switch release.

In borrowing mechanics and systems from EA’s critically lauded FPS franchise Titanfall, while providing a seemingly unique take on the well-trod ground of Battle Royale titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends has carved out a unique place for itself on cutting-edge PC builds and handily portable Nintendo Switch Lite’s worldwide. Considering its six-year lifespan shows no sense of running out any time soon, and its games-as-a-service model prioritizes continual updates and tweaking to its systems, the 30 GB requirement for Apex Legends‘ download remains reasonable to this day.

4

EA Sports FC 25 | 32.41GB

The Latest Entry In EA’s Often-Criticized Soccer Series

With more than 17,000 individual players available in EA Vancouver and EA Romania’s collaborative take on the former FIFA property holder franchise, it’s not difficult to see how EA Sports FC 25 has garnered such a large storage requirement on Nintendo’s hybrid console.

While critics and players have often criticized Electronic Arts’ by-the-numbers sports sequels due to their regular lack in innovation, the series’ ballooning game size is another bitter pill to swallow for players. As a result, 2024’s EA Sports FC 24‘s eye-watering 31.83 GB requirement has been superseded in the soccer series’ Switch install size only by its sequel, which provides fans of ‘The World’s Game’ with 32.41 gigabytes worth of gameplay on the go.

3

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition | 40.08GB

An Award-Winning RPG That Finds A Unique Place On The Switch

Considering that, despite the relative age of 2015’s award-winning The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it remains that there “aren’t many games that feel as fresh as CD Projekt Red’s masterpiece,” the fact that the action RPG made its way onto the arguably underpowered Nintendo Hybrid system is still momentous.

However, even though the Nintendo Switch “might just be the best option” to experience the open-world third entry following Geralt of Rivia, it remains that the 2019 port requires over 40 gigabytes of storage to be played. With the core game taking players approximately 100 hours to fully experience, and the Nintendo Switch’s Complete Edition including all of the title’s DLC, the seemingly gargantuan size of its download can be explained.

2

Mortal Kombat 1 | 47.52GB

A Disappointingly Unoptimized Port Of The Soft-Reboot On The Hybrid Console

Despite its usual brutality and tight 2.5D melee-focused combat, the arguably weathered tech of the Nintendo Switch has resulted in a release of Mortal Kombat 1 that is, from a technical standpoint, “a train wreck of epic proportions.” However, regardless of its visual and mechanical misgivings, WB Games’ latest installment to the Mortal Kombat series on Switch effectively brings all of its content to the hybrid console, resulting in a ballooned file size.

NetherRealm Studios’ 2019 port of the series soft-reboot comes in at 47.52GB, dwarfing the series’ former Switch installment Mortal Kombat 11‘s 33.27GB file size. It is then a shame that this out-of-the-ordinary download size has not justified its proportions due to the software’s technical misgivings.

1

NBA 2K24 Kobe Bryant Edition | 60.57GB

An Aged Sports Title that Retains The Series’ Largest Storage Requirement On Switch

Considering Visual Concepts Austin’s installment of the annualized basketball sports title was one of the best-selling titles of 2024, NBA 2K24‘s astronomical file size clearly did nothing to dissuade players from picking up the title on Nintendo Switch.

Ported to Nintendo’s hybrid console as NBA 2K24 Kobe Bryant Edition and requiring 60.57 gigabytes of storage, 2023’s basketball title superseded its series predecessor in terms of Nintendo Switch download size. With its predecessor NBA 2K23 needing a relatively measly — yet still eye-watering — 55.63GB of space to play, and its sequel NBA 2K25 being 59.87 GB in size, 2K’s annualized sports series sits as one of the Switch’s most storage-demanding series to date.