How much data do games like Fortnite and League of Legends use? Not that much

It’s not enough to just have a console, a TV and a game to play these days. With access to online services being more widespread in this day and age, pretty much every game on the market offers some sort of internet connectivity in which you can do…stuff. Said stuff may relate to tracking your stats and keeping a high score leaderboard updated, whereas other options include getting down and dirty in the trenches with other players as you battle it out to be the last pixel standing.

So how much data do those games use? Not that much, it turns out. If you’re on a fixed bandwidth budget, it’s handy to have an estimation of just how many megabytes you’ll be spending in a game at any given time. Telecommunications site whistleout (Cheers Kotaku Oz) measured the approximate hourly download figures (give or take, depending on certain factors of course) for the 22 most popular games on the planet currently.

If you’re on the most frugal of fibre to the home accounts and you love card games, then great news! Hearthstone is incredibly light on data, as it nibbles on a mere 3MB every hour. Other games such as Call of Duty, Rocket League and World of WarCraft will grab 40 of your precious megabytes every hour, while Destiny 2 tops the list with a 300MB haul every 60 minutes.

Here’s the full list:

Video game data usage per hour

• Hearthstone – 3MB
• Final Fantasy XIV – 20MB
• Sea of Thieves – 30MB
• Monster Hunter: World – 30MB
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) – 40MB
• Rocket League – 40MB
• Minecraft – 40MB
• Call of Duty: World War II – 40MB
• World of Warcraft – 40MB
• League of Legends – 45MB
• Grand Theft Auto V Online – 60MB
• Teamfight Tactics – 60MB
• Rainbow Six Siege – 70MB
• Team Fortress 2 – 80MB
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 – 80MB
• Battlefield V – 100MB
• Fortnite – 100MB
• Warframe – 115MB
• Dota 2 data usage – 120MB
• Overwatch – 135MB
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – 250MB
• Destiny 2 – 300MB

It used to be that first-person shooters used to be the hungriest games on the block, but times have changed when you look at that list! Guess having a hundred players dropping into a map, constructing all manner of architectural madness and battling it out can do a number on your bandwidth. At least Destiny 2 is keeping that old school of thought alive, demanding the most megabytes for all the stuff that starts with a “The” within its many worlds.

Last Updated: August 17, 2020