More than a decade after its release, GTA 5 continues to surprise the industry, not just through sales numbers or player counts, but through what the modding community manages to do with it. Rockstar’s massive open-world title, which typically takes up around 120 GB of storage, has now been reduced to an astonishing 2.5 GB by mod developers and somehow, it still runs.
The experiment is as radical as it sounds. Roughly 98% of the game’s content has been removed in the process. High-resolution textures, large chunks of audio files, pre-rendered cutscenes, and numerous side assets were stripped away, leaving behind only the essential components required for the game engine to function. What remains is essentially the structural skeleton of GTA 5: the map loads, the character can move, and the core systems operate but the visual quality and overall content density are dramatically scaled back.
What makes this particularly interesting is what it reveals about modern game architecture. While today’s AAA titles frequently exceed 100 GB due to ultra-detailed textures, multiple language packs, cinematic sequences, and expansive audio libraries, the underlying gameplay framework itself can represent only a fraction of that total size. By isolating the bare minimum needed to execute the game, modders have demonstrated just how compact a large-scale title like GTA 5 can theoretically become.
At a time when storage space is becoming an increasing concern for players, this kind of experiment sparks a broader conversation. SSDs may be more common now, but massive file sizes remain a barrier for many.
Could we see more modular download systems in the future, where players choose exactly which assets to install or are ever-growing installation sizes simply the inevitable cost of visual and technical ambition? Share your thoughts and stay tuned to VGNW for more updates from the gaming world. Follow us on X and keep an eye out for what comes next!
