With SSDs as expensive as they currently are, every last megabyte should count.You might be spending quite a bit of time cleaning up your folders, organizing backups, and micromanaging the space on your main SSD.But are you paying attention to your game folders? Games often end up on your main (and most expensive) SSD, and some are enormous, but they don't all have to be.
Your SSD might be carrying a lot of extra weight that you can easily trim without hurting your gameplay.Your PC games are holding more files than you think You don't need every last game-related file A lot of us take game installs at face value.It helps that most games these days are installed and managed through various launchers, such as Battle.net, Steam, or Epic Games.
You hardly ever get to interact with the folders on your own, which means you don't get the opportunity to go digging.And go digging you should.Some game folders can absolutely be trimmed.
The actual install is only part of the story, because many games also generate extra files elsewhere on your system.That includes stuff like shader caches, crash logs, screenshots, clips ...I could (and will) go on.
That's part of what makes storage cleanup so annoying right now.You can spend ages trimming downloads, moving backups around, and deleting old installers, all while your SSD is getting hammered by game-related clutter that doesn’t always live neatly inside the main install folder.Worse still, some of these files are useful, but only temporarily, which means they often stick around long after they’ve stopped earning their place on your fastest and most expensive drive.
It doesn't help that filling an SSD up to full is ill-advised.Cleaning up those folders can be really helpful, and the good news is that it's really quite easy to do.UGREEN NASync DXP2800 $350 $440 Save $90 Brand UGREEN CPU Intel 12th Gen N-Series $699 at Ugreen $350 at Amazon Expand Collapse These 6 hidden game files are wasting SSD space on your PC You might be able to get some capacity back if you delete them A quick disclaimer before we dive in: Many of these may apply to you, but don't go deleting things without backing them up first.
Depending on your PC and (mostly) the game in question, certain folders or assets may be needed.To safely get rid of your files, do this: Locate the folders/files mentioned below Back them up to a location outside of your main drive Delete them from your main drive Run the game again for some time and make sure it all runs fine If it does, delete them permanently I wouldn't want to spoil your gameplay, so let's do this safely! With that out of the way, here are some game-related files you can usually get rid of to reclaim SSD space.1.
Shader caches and pipeline caches Shader caches sound pretty serious, and they kind of are.They store precompiled shader data so games don't have to rebuild everything from scratch every time you launch them.That's all very useful, but also quite heavy.
The upside is that they're caches, not core game files, so many of them can be deleted once they grow too big and then rebuilt later with no lasting impact on performance.2.Crash dumps and log folders Crash dumps and log files are diagnostic leftovers.
If your game crashed, it probably generated a log (and may have even asked you to send it over).They're useful when actively troubleshooting, but not otherwise.3.
Screenshots, clips, and recordings Screenshots, clips, and full-on gameplay recordings can take up so much room on your SSD, but they're hard to get rid of.I have thousands of screenshots and clips from over the years, and I don't intend to get rid of them (probably ever).The catch here is you don't want them wasting space on your main SSD.
Don't delete them, just move them over to secondary storage.4.Backup files you made and forgot about I can't be the only one who will fiddle with my game folders, back some of them up for any reason (such as UI configs or mod folders), and then just ...
leave those pointless backups even after I'm done with whatever I was doing.You can often find such pointless, duplicate backups of folders or even entire games sitting around on your SSD, and they all need to go.5.
Optional DLC, HD texture packs, and mods you no longer use A lot of games let you install extra content that sounds nice in theory but ends up being something you barely touch, such as language packs, high-resolution textures, campaign add-ons, or mods you stopped using months ago.These can take up a shocking amount of space, and in many cases, removing them will not affect your day-to-day play at all.This is one area where it is often smarter to uninstall through the launcher or mod manager instead of deleting files by hand.
Word of warning, though, that if you plan to complete that DLC someday, deleting it might be a bad idea.Tread carefully in this section.6.
Launcher caches and repair leftovers Game launchers create their own caches, temporary update data, and repair files.These files are meant to speed up downloads, patching, or verification, but if you're running low on space, they're often safe to delete.Caches generally are (your mileage may vary).
Keep the games, but get rid of the clutter No one likes a slow SSD Your main SSD is the perfect destination for games, but all that gaming-adjacent clutter doesn't need to be there.SSDs run best when they're not filled up to the brim, which is why it's good to stay on top of tidying them as needed.The biggest gains will still come from uninstalling games you're not currently playing, though.
Proceed with caution and enjoy the extra space As a rule of thumb in this situation and many others, don't delete anything you're not 100% sure you can part with.Back up first, delete second, and then perma-delete once you're certain it's fine.It's a bit of a process, but it can be worth it—some of those game files are absolutely humongous.
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