Looking back from 2026, it’s hard to forget the buzz that rippled through the RPG community when Obsidian Entertainment and Microsoft finally flipped the switch on Avowed’s preload. It was early February 2025, and the Living Lands were just weeks away from being explored in first-person glory for the first time. The download numbers that appeared on screens weren’t just storage metrics—they were a tangible sign that one of the most anticipated fantasy games in years was really, truly happening.

When the preload went live on February 11, 2025, players rushed to see the final install size. The official word was clear: 74.77 GB would be needed on consoles and PC. For many, that number felt surprisingly manageable. After all, modern AAA titles often balloon past 100 GB without a second thought. Avowed chose a leaner approach, and that sparked its own wave of discussion. Was this a sign of focused, efficient design, or would the Living Lands feel smaller than Pillars of Eternity fans hoped? In hindsight, both turned out to be true in the best way—compact yet densely packed with secrets.

But not everyone saw the same digits. Over on Steam and the Xbox app, early downloaders reported sizes dipping to 71 GB or climbing to 73 GB . The mystery of the missing gigabytes became a tiny meme within fan circles. Some joked that the Adra pillars themselves were compressing the data. Officially, Microsoft never explained the variance, though the system requirements page stuck to a firm 75 GB requirement. Tech-savvy users quickly pointed to differences in how platforms calculate storage—base-10 versus base-2, reserved space for updates, or chunks of encrypted data held back to outsmart pirates and leakers. Whatever the reason, it only added to the near-mythical aura around the game’s arrival.

Access timing added another layer of excitement. Those who pre-ordered the Premium Edition could jump in on February 13, 2025 , five days ahead of the general public. That early access period turned into a mini-launch event of its own. Streamers dove into the Living Lands, and suddenly Twitter was flooded with screenshots of vibrant fungal forests and dynamic spellcasting. The full launch on February 18 widened the door, and by then, the conversation had already shifted from “Is it good?” to “Which companion build are you running?”

Of course, preloading was just the final act in a long buildup. Avowed didn’t just come from any studio—it came from the minds behind Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. The link to Eora, the beloved universe of the Pillars of Eternity series, ensured a built-in audience hungry for lore. Fans had been waiting since 2018’s Deadfire to revisit that world, and doing it through a first-person lens with real-time combat was a bold pivot. The party-based tactics of old gave way to a fluid, ability-driven system that let players swap between grimoires and guns in the blink of an eye. Preload day was when that imaginative leap became a tangible folder on hard drives around the world.

The community response was electric but also wonderfully grounded. Across forums, users swapped tips on SSD space management and debated whether the 75 GB call meant a day-one patch was lurking. Some joked that they were “preloading hope” alongside data. The contrast between the calm, polished trailers and the frantic, meme-filled preload cycle painted a picture of a player base that was both passionate and playful. It felt like a collective holding of breath, one that would be released in a two-week frenzy of discovery once the game unlocked.

Fast-forward to today, and it’s fascinating to see how that 74 GB seed has grown. The Living Lands have expanded through post-launch updates and, most notably, the Forged in Storms expansion released in late 2025. The core experience that players first downloaded remains a masterclass in environmental storytelling—those early preload megabytes held the foundation of a region that still surprises explorers a year later. The success of Avowed also proved that the Eora setting could thrive outside the isometric CRPG mold, paving the way for Obsidian’s newly announced Pillars of Eternity: The Watcher’s Vow coming next year. In a very real sense, that 2025 preload was the starting pistol for a whole new era of adventures.

Looking back, the preload moment was more than a file size reveal. It was a ceremony. Players cleared space, double-checked their Game Pass subscriptions, and counted down the hours. The minor discrepancies in download size became part of the game’s folklore, little quirks remembered fondly in conversations at virtual campfires. For a few days in February 2025, Avowed was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere—sitting silent in libraries, waiting to burst into life. And when it did, it delivered on the promise that those 74 GB held: a world well worth the wait, and a journey that still feels as fresh in 2026 as it did on launch day.