You’re all hyped to queue up for your first ranked split of the season, or test out that new champion everyone’s been raving about, but you hit that frustrating pop-up saying you don’t have enough disk space to run the update. We’ve all been there, and that’s exactly why so many new and returning players ask how big is League of Legends storage before they hit download. The total size isn’t a fixed number, either – it shifts with every patch, event drop, and new content release, so it’s easy to get caught off guard by sudden bloat. We’re breaking down all the latest numbers, plus simple hacks to cut down on unused file weight if you’re short on space.
Current League of Legends Storage Requirements by Device
The total storage you’ll need varies a lot depending on what device you play on, and whether you opt into extra optional content like high-resolution textures or regional voice packs. These numbers are pulled straight from the latest Riot Client documentation, and account for all content released up to the most recent patch.
Windows PC base install is around 23GB as of the latest update, but that number will jump 1-3GB every few weeks with minor balance patches, and 3-5GB for major seasonal or event updates. Most long-time players will see their install sit between 28GB and 35GB, after months of cached content and extra files build up.
Mac users can expect a slightly larger base install of around 24GB, due to extra optimization files built for macOS architecture. The final size after regular use will land between 29GB and 36GB, the same as Windows devices for the most part.
League of Legends: Wild Rift for mobile starts at just 8GB for the core game, but if you opt into high-resolution textures, all regional voice packs, and event cinematics, it can climb to 12GB total. If you only play on one regional server and skip the high-res packs, you can easily keep it under 10GB on your phone.
No matter what device you use, you should leave at least 10GB of extra free space on your drive for temporary update files. Even if you have just enough space for the base install, you’ll run into errors mid-update if there’s no room for the temporary files Riot uses to patch the game without full reinstalls.
Why League of Legends Storage Size Grows Over Time
You might download the game at 23GB, then check a year later and see it’s taking up 34GB of space, even if you never opted into any extra content. That’s totally normal, and it happens because Riot stores a lot of optional and temporary files on your drive to make load times faster and content drops smoother.
Every new champion that releases (roughly every 2-3 months) adds new model files, voice lines, ability effects, and base skin variants to the game files, even if you never buy or play that champion. The files are stored so you can see the champion when you play against them, or view them in the store without extra downloads.
Event content also adds a lot of hidden weight. Custom game modes, event-specific map skins, promotional cinematics, and limited-time splash art all stay in your game files long after the event ends, unless you manually remove them. Most players don’t realize these files are taking up space, because they don’t show up as separate downloads.
Some of the most common sources of extra bloat include:
You don’t have to uninstall and reinstall the game to get rid of this extra bloat – there are simple built-in tools to clear these files in 10 minutes or less, with zero risk to your account progress or custom settings.
Easy Ways to Reduce League of Legends Storage Size Without Uninstalling
If you’re running low on space and don’t want to delete other games or files to make room for LoL updates, these simple steps will cut 3-8GB off your total install size with no impact on game performance.
First, use the built-in Riot Client repair tool. Open the Riot Client, click your profile icon in the top right corner, go to Settings, select League of Legends from the list of installed games, then click “Initiate Full Repair”. The tool will scan your entire install for unused, corrupted, or duplicate files, and delete them automatically. I ran this last month when my laptop hit 99% disk usage, and it cut my install size from 34GB down to 27GB in 12 minutes, with no changes to my keybinds or saved settings.
Next, disable high-resolution textures if you don’t need them. If you play on a 1080p or lower monitor, you won’t notice any visual difference between the standard and high-res texture packs, but turning the high-res packs off will save you 3-4GB of space immediately. You can toggle this setting in the game’s graphics menu, under the “Advanced” tab.
You can also delete unused voice packs if you only play on one regional server. The default install comes with voice packs for every major region, which take up 1-2GB each. Go to the Riot Client settings for League of Legends, select the “Language” tab, and delete any voice packs for regions you never play on. Just make sure you don’t delete the pack for your main server, or you’ll have to redownload it to hear champion voice lines in game.
As a last step, you can manually clear the client cache by opening your Riot Games folder, navigating to the League of Legends subfolder, and deleting the “Cache” and “Config” folders. These folders will regenerate automatically the next time you launch the game, and you won’t lose any account progress or custom settings.
What Happens If You Don’t Have Enough Storage for League of Legends?
You might think you can get away with having just barely enough space for the base install, but that will cause way more headaches than it’s worth down the line.
First, you won’t be able to install new patches. Riot’s updates require extra temporary space to unpack and install new files, so even if you have 1GB more than the base install size, you’ll get an error message when you try to update. That means you can’t play the game at all until you free up more space, which is super frustrating if you were planning to play with friends.
Even if you do get the update to install, you’ll likely experience random crashes, long load times, and in-game stutters. The game needs extra space to write temporary files while you’re playing, especially during team fights when there are a lot of ability effects on screen. If there’s no space for those temporary files, the game will freeze or crash entirely mid-match, which can cost you ranked LP or event rewards.
Worst case, you’ll end up with corrupted game files if an update is interrupted mid-install because you ran out of space. That can force you to reinstall the entire game from scratch, which takes way longer than just freeing up a few extra GB of space ahead of time. It’s always better to check your storage before you start a big update, especially seasonal or event patches that are larger than normal.
If you were wondering how big is League of Legends storage before you download, you now have all the numbers you need for every device, plus simple hacks to cut down on extra bloat if you’re short on space. You don’t need a high-end gaming PC with terabytes of storage to play LoL smoothly – even a budget laptop with 64GB of total storage can run the game perfectly if you manage your files properly. Next time you get that annoying “storage full” pop-up before a ranked grind, you know exactly what to do to get back in the game fast.