External drives for your PS4 or Xbox One can help keep your library of games a lot more manageable.

Game sizes are increasing year on year. Content is becoming more ambitious and technically demanding, meaning games are requiring more memory. When you first bought your PS4 or Xbox One, you probably thought that 500GB would be ample for your gaming needs. Additionally, when DLC is factored in, it’s not uncommon for games to reach sizes in excess of 100GB. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, for instance, clocked in at close to 100GB at launch; with DLC, the size is in excess of 175GB. Similarly, after two years of expansions and updates, Destiny 2 has reached around 165GB. While one option is to remove games that you’re no longer using, sometimes it’s nice to have everything in one place.

Western Digital Elements 4TB HDD
This is a great all-round portable hard drive for your PS4 or Xbox One, and perfectly balances performance with price. It’s no wonder, then, that’s it’s a bestseller – 81% of the drive’s 50,000 reviews on Amazon are 5 stars. The 4TB storage capacity will be enough for most gamers, storing up to 80 games at 50GB, or slightly fewer assuming there are some 100GB+ games thrown into the mix. With Like all WD portable drives, the Digital Elements 4TB is sturdy and built to last. Being a mechanical hard disk drive, it isn’t the fastest storage device on this list, but at £89.99, it’s a fantastic all-rounder.



Toshiba Canvio Advance 1TB HDD
A great budget portable hard drive, the Canvio Advance’s performance is on par with most of the other drives on this list, at a more affordable cost. While it only has a storage capacity of 1TB, for many PS4 and Xbox One gamers, this will be enough space. The gloss finish is an upgrade on the plastic matte finish on the HDD’s predecessor, the Canvio Basics, and the blue colour complete with glowing light fits perfectly with the PS4 from an aesthetic standpoint. While the 1TB capacity could be enough to turn people away, at £47.50, it’s a steal.



Seagate Expansion 6TB HDD
This portable hard drive comes with a whopping 6TB of storage, so it’s aimed at gamers who have amassed a large collection of games over the years. While you can get models from 2TB onwards, the 6TB represents the best value for money in terms of cost per GB. The 6TB model will store between 80 and 100 PS4 or Xbox One games, which is sure to be enough for most users. At £109.99 on Amazon, the Seagate Expansion 6TB is great value for money, but as with all HDDs, this low cost is down the comparatively low speeds.



WD My Passport SSD 1TB
The read and write speeds of solid-state drives (SSDs) are significantly higher compared to their mechanical counterparts, and you’re looking at a price tag to match. The WD My Passport SSD 1TB can be found for £132.99 on Amazon, almost three times the price of our budget pick, the Toshiba Canvio Advance. The added read/speeds will boost game load times, and cut the time it takes to copy files to and from your PS4 or Xbox One. If 1TB of storage is enough, and you can afford spending a little bit more, the WD My Passport SSD is a great choice.