Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is pegged to be the most storage-intensive entry in the Call of Duty series on PC when it releases on November 10, 2023, demanding a whopping 213GB of free storage for a full installation of the game. That's no meager amount of storage, especially for the SSD users this announcement seems primarily targeted at. In fact, both the Steam page system requirements and Activision's own system requirement heavily recommend SSD usage.
213GB is a big chunk out of even a 2TB drive, never mind the more common 1TB models. Thankfully, prices on the best SSDs are quite affordable right now, with 2TB models starting at under $100, but the storage bloat of modern games still feels a bit too much.
Technically, the game files by themselves should only comprise 149GB, which is a number that can be reduced to 78 GB if you choose to pre-install COD HQ and Warzone or already have them installed. This is actually the minimum file size install, though. If you use a full 213GB install size, you'll also be getting a so-called "Hi-Rez Assets Cache" in your storage that will take up the remaining 64GB of that 213GB total without Warzone.
With a launch install size that can realistically take up 213GB on your storage drive — more with updates — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is looking like the devourer of SSD capacity for multiplayer gaming scenarios. Of course, gamers who don't care for the highest-quality textures and only want the multiplayer gameplay specifically can also opt for a barebones 79GB install, which should be more tolerable for the storage constrained and easier on the throughput of a slower storage drives.
Beyond storage requirements, the latest Modern Warfare is sure to put your CPU and GPU through their paces as well, particularly in large open scenes with a lot of battlefield chaos flying around. The game will support AMD FSR2 and Nvidia DLSS3 (which includes Reflex) in order to help alleviate GPU performance concerns, though anyone trying to play below minimum CPU spec should be warned that upscaling may not be enough to save you.
