Big games balloon past 20GB and keep growing, but you rarely need all of it. Here’s how to reclaim gigabytes fast without deleting your progress or wiping the other apps you actually use.
See what’s actually eating your storage
Before you delete a single file, find the real culprit. On Android, open Settings, tap Storage (or Apps, then the game), and you’ll see the app split into its base size and its cached data. On iPhone, go to Settings, General, then iPhone Storage, and scroll to the game to read “App Size” versus “Documents & Data.”
That second number is where the surprises live. A Genshin Impact install that started around 20GB can quietly carry another 5 to 10GB of downloaded resource packs, patch leftovers, and cache. COD Mobile does the same thing, ballooning well past its store listing once every mode’s assets land on your phone.
Write down your two or three biggest offenders and check the numbers before and after each cleanup step. Nine times out of ten it isn’t the core game crushing you, it’s the on-demand content the game downloaded in the background while you weren’t paying attention. Knowing that changes exactly where you aim.
Trim Genshin Impact from the inside
Genshin’s sneakiest space hog is voice-over audio. Each language pack, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, is its own multi-gigabyte download. The game only needs the one you actually listen to, so open Paimon’s menu, go to Settings, then Language, and confirm your voice-over is set to a single option. If you ever switched languages mid-playthrough, you may be sitting on a spare pack you can shed.
The next lever is version preloading. A week or so before each big update, Genshin pre-downloads several gigabytes so patch day feels seamless. That’s great when you have room and painful when you don’t. If you’re scraping the bottom of your storage, skip the preload prompt and let it download on release day instead, once you’ve cleared some space.
Finally, deal with the cache. Genshin builds up temporary files as you roam Teyvat, and they don’t always clean themselves up. On Android you can clear the game’s cache straight from its Storage screen without touching your account or progress. On iPhone there’s no per-app cache button, which is exactly why the reinstall trick further down matters so much.
Cut COD Mobile down to the modes you actually play
COD Mobile is refreshingly modular, and most players never use that to their advantage. Inside the game, open Settings and find the download or resource-management section. From there you can remove the high-definition resource packs and the assets for modes you ignore. If you live in Multiplayer, the Battle Royale and Zombies files are dead weight you can delete now and re-grab later in seconds.
There’s also a straightforward cache-clearing control in the same settings area. Use it after big seasonal updates, when leftover files from the previous season tend to pile up unused. It’s non-destructive, since your rank, loadouts, and unlocks live on Activision’s servers, not inside that cache.
One more setting is worth flipping: turn off automatic HD resource downloads if you’re on a phone with a smaller screen or tight storage. The visual difference on a six-inch display is minor, but the space you save is very real, often a few gigabytes across the game’s texture packs alone.
Clear the junk sitting around your games
Your game isn’t the only thing bloating your phone, and freeing space elsewhere buys the headroom future updates need. Chat apps are the usual villains: WhatsApp and Telegram auto-save every meme, video, and voice note straight to your gallery. Dig into each app’s storage or media settings, switch off auto-download, and clear the media you’ll never open again.
Photos and screenshots are the next easy win. Back them up to Google Photos or iCloud, confirm the upload actually finished, then delete the local copies. Gameplay clips are especially enormous. While you’re in there, empty your Downloads folder and remove old APK installers, which serve no purpose the moment an app is installed.
Then hit the small stuff in bulk. On Android, clearing cache app-by-app from the Storage menu can reclaim gigabytes across a dozen apps in a few minutes. On iPhone, use “Offload Unused Apps,” which removes the app but keeps its data, so a game or tool you rarely touch stops squatting on your storage until you genuinely need it back.
When a reinstall beats every trick, and how to stop the crunch
Sometimes cache is so bloated it simply won’t shrink, and that’s when a clean reinstall wins outright. A fresh download of Genshin or COD Mobile installs only what’s current, compacting years of patch cruft into a lean footprint. The catch is non-negotiable: confirm your account is linked before you uninstall, a HoYoverse account for Genshin or an Activision, Google, or Facebook login for COD Mobile, so your progress is safe on the server and not on the device you’re about to wipe.
Reinstalling over solid Wi-Fi is worth the download, because it also lets you re-select only the resources you want, skipping the modes and voice packs you trimmed earlier. You essentially hand yourself a factory-fresh, right-sized install in under an hour of mostly hands-off waiting.
To keep the crunch from creeping back, leave yourself a buffer of 5 to 10GB of free space at all times. Updates need room to unpack before they can delete the old files, and a phone running near zero will fail mid-patch and force an infuriating full redownload.
Build two quick habits and you’ll rarely think about this again. Skip preloads whenever you’re tight on space, and run a two-minute cache sweep after every major season or version drop. Big games will always try to grow, but with a little upkeep you simply don’t have to let them grow unchecked.
