Modern Warfare 3 is now confirmed to be just about as big as recent Call of Duty entries, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. If anything, CoD games are only getting bigger, so the unexpected part is that the base game is only 78GB. That number jumps up to a massive 149GB if you also include the Call of Duty Headquarters launcher along with Warzone – two downloads that feel mandatory for the full CoD experience at this point. For context, that’s as big as Baldur’s Gate 3, and ten times the size of the 2011 version of MW3.
Activision’s Modern Warfare 3 recommendations suggest that this storage be cleared up on an SSD as well, which would allow for faster load times among other improvements in longrunning the FPS game.
With that said, you’ll only need to free up 78GB for the initial download if you already have CoD HQ and Warzone installed, and certain content can then be uninstalled if you’re only interested in playing the multiplayer portion of the game.
All of this info comes from Activision’s most recent Modern Warfare 3 blog post that focuses on PC specs and system requirements. Here’s the full list of requirements below:
If you’re eager to get all of this downloading sorted before launch, you can preload Modern Warfare 3 on November 1 if you’ve pre-purchased the game on either Battle.net or Steam. Preloading also gives you early access to the campaign on November 2, as opposed to the November 10 release date. The campaign starts where Modern Warfare 2 left off, with Captain Price and Task Force 141 going up against Vladimir Makarov.
Honestly, playing through the story more than a week in advance seems worthwhile, especially if you know that you’re buying the game for sure. Then, you can focus solely on multiplayer at launch.
Preloading for the official launch – everything outside of the campaign – starts on November 8, two days before you gain access to MW3 Zombies and multiplayer modes – so make sure you check out our list of all of the currently known MW3 guns to get ahead of the undead.