How to delete games on your PS4 and free up storage

If you’re still rocking a PS4 or PS4 Pro in 2023, it’s probably an ongoing battle to free up storage for new games. Learn how to get more space, whether by deleting older games or trying one of the alternative solutions.

How to delete games on your PS4 to free up space

When you’re prepared to delete a game, deleting one is simple. Navigate to it in the content launcher or Library, hit the Options button on your controller, then select Delete.

More important is choosing what to delete. Typically, of course, you should focus on games you haven’t touched in months or years. But within that group, you can be more strategic by choosing titles that consume more storage. Deleting a Call of Duty or Uncharted game, for example, is going to win back a lot more space than a turn-based tactics game, simply by virtue of all the art, sound, and video assets blockbuster action games need.

Remember also that if you delete a game you bought digitally, you don’t have to buy it again — you can just re-download it from the PlayStation Store, assuming it’s still listed and you haven’t switched accounts.

How to get more storage on PS4 without deleting games

By deleting save game data

You can go into each game and delete saves that way, but the PS4 offers a simpler universal solution:

• Go to Settings > Application Saved Data Management.
• Select System Storage or USB Storage, depending on where you’re trying to make room, then Delete.
• Select a game, and checkmark all the save files you want to delete. Use Select All if you want to delete things en masse, but try to avoid this, since you’ll lose all your in-game progress.
• Once you’ve selected one or more files, choose Delete, then OK.

By deleting capture data

This one of the more preferable alternatives, since capture data usually isn’t that important, and videos in particular can consume large amounts of storage. If you don’t use captures often, however, you probably won’t gain much back.

• Go to Settings > Storage > System Storage > Capture Gallery.
• Pick a game you’d like to scrub files from, or else select All.
• You can browse Screenshots, Video Clips, or All capture files.
• Hit the Options button on your controller, then Delete.
• Checkmark the files you want to delete. Use Select All to choose everything in the current view.
• When you’ve finished selection, choose Delete.

By upgrading PS4 storage

Honestly, we’d suggest putting any new spending towards a PS5 at this point. But if a storage upgrade is cheap for you or you’re happy keeping your PS4, there are two paths to take. We won’t go into detailed instructions here — but knowing your options is a start.

The simplest option is to connect an external USB drive, and save any new (or re-downloaded) games there. Make sure it’s a USB 3.x drive — USB 2.0 is too slow to work. You’ll also need to format the drive as PS4 extended storage, and be mindful of a 250GB minimum.

The second option is to upgrade your PS4’s internal hard drive (HDD). You’ll first need to identify your model number, then follow model-specific instructions for backing up data, replacing the drive, reinstalling system software, and restoring files. It may be more trouble than it’s worth, though you can potentially get a speed boost if you switch from a platter drive to an SSD.

Read more: The PS5 buyer’s guide

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