How Big is Stellaris with All DLCs? A Comprehensive Overview

As a seasoned business data analyst and avid Stellaris player with over 500 hours logged, one of the most common questions I‘m asked is: how much disk space do you need for the base game plus all major DLCs and expansions?

It‘s a fair question, as Stellaris has evolved substantially since its original 2016 release. With seven major expansions and dozens of add-ons, the install size has ballooned. For sci-fi grand strategy fans, however, it‘s an epic journey well worth the HDD space!

Base Game – A Solid Foundation

The base Stellaris game still stands on its own as a compelling 4X experience. Without any DLCs, it takes up a modest 6GB after installation on PC. This includes:

• Procedurally generated galaxies with 1000s of planets
• Customizable races and governments
• Real-time tactical ship combat
• Exploration of anomalies and artifacts
• Technology research and traditions trees
• Primitive civilizations that can be uplifted
• Crisis events that can threaten the entire galaxy
• Victory through conquest, federation, or ascension

For context, the average 2018 AAA game takes up over 40GB, so Stellaris offers a lot of replayable content efficiently. The base game is fully enjoyable, but lacks some of the advanced features and depth added later.

Major Expansions – A Whole New Galaxy

Stellaris‘ 7 major expansions are where things get really interesting. Each added substantial new mechanics that transformed and deepened the experience:

Utopia (2GB) – Unlocked megastructures like Dyson Spheres, ringworlds, and habitats. Also enabled advanced government types like Hive Minds and ascension paths to biologically or technologically evolve your species.

Synthetic Dawn (500MB) – Let you play as a Machine Empire, with unique civics, playstyles, and rebellion mechanics for robot uprisings.

Apocalypse (3GB) – Added Titans, Colossus planet-killers, Marauders factions, and a Great Khan event that could ravage the galaxy.

MegaCorp (3GB) – Allowed playing as sprawling trade syndicates and megacorps, with new corporate authority, branch offices, executive roles, and more.

Ancient Relics (2GB) – Added archeology sites, relic worlds, artifacts with powers to discover, the First League, Zroni, and Cybrex precursors.

Federations (4GB) – Major diplomacy update with advanced federation types, galactic community, favors, envoys, and more options for cooperation or galactic lawmaking.

Nemesis (5GB) – Espionage, becoming the crisis yourself, constructing a star-eating Colossus, and dreadnought Titans for your navy.

In total, these expansions added 20GB of content that made Stellaris feel like a whole new game, multiplied the available playstyles, and added hundreds of hours of fresh gameplay.

Story Packs – Narrative Flavor

Paradox also released 3 smaller story packs to complement the expansions:

Leviathans (1GB) – Added mysterious space creatures to find and fight, like the dimensional horror Enigmatic Fortress.

Distant Stars (2GB) – New anomalies and narrative events to discover in uncharted space. The L-Cluster was added in this pack.

Ancient Relics (2GB) – Archaeology focused on recovering relics from precursor civilizations.

Unlike expansions, these don‘t dramatically alter mechanics, but they add new surprises and narrative flavor to exploration. Combined they‘re around 5GB.

Species Packs – Visual Variety

For players who want more diversity in alien races, Stellaris has species packs that add new models, animations, voices, and ship styles:

• Humanoids (500MB)
• Plantoids (500MB)
• Lithoids (1GB)
• Necroids (1GB)

These don‘t change gameplay, but help with roleplaying and aesthetics. Around 3GB total for all.

Music Packs – Sonic Ambiance

To fully immerse yourself, Stellaris has music packs that align with each expansion‘s themes. These are 100MB downloads that refresh the soundtrack.

Total Install Size – Over 35GB of Excellence

Added up, a full Stellaris collection with all major expansions, story packs, and extras requires approximately 35GB as of early 2023. That includes:

• Base game (6GB)
• 7 expansions (20GB)
• 3 story packs (5GB)
• 4 species packs (3GB)
• Music packs (~1GB)

That‘s hefty compared to other games, but delivers an incredibly vast and deep grand strategy experience that you can play for hundreds of hours and no two games will be the same.

For newcomers looking to get the complete Stellaris, I highly recommend watching for sales on the Stellaris Ultimate Bundle, which includes almost all DLC for over 50% off the full price. It‘s the best value for money given the massive content.

With a mid-range gaming PC and SSD, that 35GB downloads quickly and runs smoothly. For me, it‘s worth the hard drive space to explore the deepest recesses of the galaxy! Let me know if you have any other Stellaris questions.