Helldivers 2’s PC Bloat? Blame Mechanical Hard Drives — And Don’t Expect a Quick Fix
Helldivers 2 devs finally explain the 150 GB PC install: to keep old-school HDDs from choking, Arrowhead duplicates assets across the drive, ballooning size compared to the 50 GB console build. Deputy Technical Director Brendan Armstrong breaks it down in the studio’s first Tech Blog.
If you have been wondering why Helldivers 2 eats 150 GB on PC while it is a neat 50 GB on consoles, Arrowhead finally spelled it out. The short version: old-school hard drives are dragging everyone down, and the workaround that keeps those players loading quickly is making the install balloon for the rest of us.
Why PC needs 150 GB and consoles get away with 50 GB
Arrowhead deputy technical director Brendan Armstrong posted the studio's first-ever Tech Blog breaking down what is happening under the hood. Mechanical HDDs do not like hopping all over a disk to find assets. To cut those 'seek times' during loading, the PC build duplicates a ton of data and spreads it around the drive so the read head does not have to sprint a marathon every time you fast-travel or drop into a mission.
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S are SSD-only, so they skip this whole dance. On PC, though, Arrowhead still has to support the chunk of the player base using spinning drives (Armstrong pegs it at roughly 12%), which means everyone downloads the bloat. That choice keeps HDD players from suffering miserable load times, but it inflates installs for millions of others.
"Eliminating all duplication would make HDD loading times 10 times slower."
What Arrowhead says they will do
Armstrong laid out a three-stage plan to trim the fat without turning HDD load screens into a coffee break:
- Immediate: a cleanup pass in the next update to remove the low-hanging redundant data.
- Medium-term: selective de-duplication, peeling back duplicates where it will not wreck HDD performance.
- Long-term: deeper engine changes so the game relies less on duplication in the first place.
Players pitch a quick fix: split Steam branches
The community actually rallied around a practical idea: use Steam's branch system to separate HDD and SSD builds. SSD players would download a lean, de-duplicated version. HDD players would keep the optimized, duplicated one. That would sidestep current engine constraints and deliver relief right now. Steam already supports optional component downloads and multiple public branches for games, so this is not a moonshot.
Arrowhead has not responded to the branch suggestion yet. But it is popular because it gives people a choice: smaller installs for SSD users today, with HDD players sticking to the performance-friendly build. It would also make squad formation easier around compatible setups, instead of waiting on long-term engine surgery.
The communication shift (finally)
The Tech Blog itself is the other big story. CEO Shams Jorjani said last week that the studio would communicate outside Discord after fans accused the team of hiding from real issues. This post makes good on that promise. Armstrong wrote like an engineer explaining trade-offs, not a PR bot dodging blame, and players responded well. Nobody expects instant miracles for a problem this knotted, but clear reasoning goes a long way toward trust. Now Arrowhead has to follow through with actual improvements.
Bottom line
This is classic PC game math: support the slowest hardware and everyone pays the storage tax. The long-term engine work is important, but splitting Steam branches feels like the obvious short-term pressure release while they iterate.
What would you rather see Arrowhead do first: ship SSD/HDD-specific Steam branches now, or stay laser-focused on the deeper engine fix even if it takes longer?