Steam’s Hardware Survey continues to prove gamers don’t have much free storage, and I am unfortunately among them

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On July 4, 2025

The monthly Steam Hardware survey has a somewhat flawed methodology, as it only surveys a limited number of gamers who opt in every single month. This means those surveyed often have a level of dedication to PC gaming above the average PC owner, which is why I’m even more disappointed to see gamers just don’t have much storage left. Gamers, in this instance, includes me too.

The June 2025 Steam Hardware Survey has just come out, and once again, the ‘free hard drive space’ category is dominated by those with between 100 GB to 249 GB on their machine, at 23.05%. In second place is 250 GB to 499 GB, with 22.43% and third place is a pitiful 10 GB to 99 GB, with 15.66%.

This survey has reminded me I need to clear out some things, and I now sit at a still-not-great 420 GB of storage left, split between two SSDs. My poor main SSD has a measly 40 GB of storage left.

To put this figure into context, the 100-249 GB section sat at a winning 22.84% in May’s Steam Hardware Survey, and that same section was also first in the April survey, at 23.21%. March once again saw 100-249 GB in the lead at 22.563%.

Despite fluctuations of almost a percentage point, one thing is clear: gamers need to get rid of those games that have just been sitting on their drive collecting digital dust.

Unspecified: 0.00% (0.00% change)
Less than 10 GB: 0.89% (-0.01% change)
10 GB to 99 GB: 15.66% (+0.04% change)
100 GB to 249 GB: 23.05% (+0.21% change)
250 GB to 499 GB: 22.43% (+0.24% change)
500 GB to 749 GB: 11.43% (+0.26% change)
750 GB to 999 GB: 9.24% (-0.16% change)
1 TB to 2 TB: 9.81% (-0.21% change)
2 TB to 3 TB: 2.33% (-0.14% change)
3 TB to 4 TB: 1.76% (-0.07% change)
Above 4 TB: 3.38% (-0.18% change)

Looking at my storage now, Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, and Red Dead Redemption 2 take up over 400 GB alone. Given that I intended to restart Red Dead Redemption 2 and finally play Black Myth: Wukong months ago, maybe one of them can sit on the bench for now.

The figures from this month’s survey show that users with above 1 TB of hard drive space make up 52.12% of those surveyed. However, this specific figure doesn’t tell the whole story, as it only accounts for those with 1 TB, 2 TB, and anyone lucky to have more than that. Despite that, this does mean that a significant portion of people will have more than 1 TB of storage, yet have only 100-249 GB of storage left on their PC.

From May to June, the Steam Hardware Survey stayed pretty much the same when it comes to OS choice (Windows 11) and system RAM (16 GB), but the mobile RTX 4060 overtook the desktop RTX 3060, with the former going up to 4.79% and the latter going down to 4.42%. These two budget GPUs have been trading places consistently over the last few months.

Oculus Quest 2 still remains the dominant choice of VR headset, but it actually gained even more over the Meta Quest 3, with the former headset now at 31.38% and the latter at 16.28%. This means the Quest 2 gained 2.29% and the Quest 3 lost 6.38% in a month. That’s a pretty big jump, but the consistent sales of the Quest 3 and the Xbox-branded Quest 3S launch could put up a better fight for the headset in July.

Now that I’ve freed up a little space, I can proudly claim I am in second place, and somehow a little better off than those in first. Given that SSDs get less efficient, and even become slower, if they are packed full of data, I’d take better performance over just one extra game any day.