Back in the early 2010s, Solid-state drives—better known as SSDs—were introduced as the next-generation storage solution powered by memory semiconductors. While they initially turned heads for offering faster speeds than HDDs, they were hampered by high prices, limited capacities, and concerns over data loss, preventing immediate widespread adoption. However, as performance improved and prices dropped, SSDs quickly became mainstream, and by the 2020s, they established themselves as an essential component for any PC gamer.

Since last year, a growing number of major titles have moved beyond merely recommending SSDs to making them a mandatory requirement. This trend arguably kicked into high gear with the 2020 release of Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red made waves by listing an SSD as a minimum requirement rather than a suggestion—a move that aligned perfectly with the era when NVMe SSDs were finally becoming affordable and reliable enough for the masses.

From that point on, AAA titles—those gargantuan, high-spec juggernauts—began demanding SSDs as the standard. Forza Horizon 5, arriving in 2021, set a baseline of 110GB on an SSD. Soon after, Naraka: Bladepoint, Days Gone, and Medieval Dynasty joined the fray, explicitly listing 'SSD recommended' in their specs. By 2022, Monster Hunter Rise and The Callisto Protocol followed suit, while the eerie horror title Scorn went the extra mile by making an SSD an absolute prerequisite for entry.

By 2023, the roster of games insisting on an SSD expanded significantly. Titles like Baldur's Gate 3, Dead Space Remake, Diablo 4, Starfield, and Alan Wake 2 were all on board. Diablo 4 made its stance clear as early as its closed beta tests, while the Dead Space Remake was essentially unplayable on an HDD, suffering from severe loading stutters.

The list of games demanding SSDs only grew in 2024. Minimum system requirements for Palworld, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, No Rest for the Wicked, Final Fantasy 16, Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition (the 2024 Steam version), Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Frostpunk 2 all explicitly state that an SSD is a must.

Even when it's not strictly mandatory, the 'recommended' label is becoming ubiquitous. Black Myth: Wukong, Marvel Rivals, Sons of the Forest, Path of Exile 2, Once Human, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and the Silent Hill 2 Remake are prime examples. Looking at the 2024 landscape, it is clear that regardless of region, genre, or development scale, the demand for SSD speed is becoming an inescapable reality.

By 2025, most popular titles have shifted the SSD requirement from a suggestion to a non-negotiable reality. From the January Steam launch of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to February’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds, the 'SSD essential' tag is everywhere. The same goes for GTA 5 Enhanced, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, Dune: Awakening, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Doom: The Dark Ages, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The First Berserker: Khazan, and Assetto Corsa Evo. Even Sifu developer’s Rematch and 11 bit studios' sci-fi survival game 'The Alters' are following this path.

Looking at the 2025 lineup, it feels as though the entire 'GOTY' candidate pool has been gathered into one basket. When you track the trend from 2020 to today, it is clear that what began with massive, open-world AAA titles has now trickled down to mid-sized AA games. For the modern PC gamer, the workflow is simple: install games on your SSD and leave your cold storage to the HDDs.

There is no single smoking gun for the shift in 2020, but rather a perfect storm. The steady decline in prices and the jump in storage capacities played a huge role. Furthermore, the PS5 and Xbox Series X both adopted NVMe SSDs as their core storage, forcing multiplatform developers to optimize accordingly. Consequently, Sony’s own first-party titles brought to Steam have almost exclusively mandated or strongly recommended SSDs.

Post-Cyberpunk 2077, the industry's obsession with high-resolution textures and seamless, loading-free open worlds pushed hardware to its limits. SSDs provide the blistering data transfer speeds necessary to keep these worlds feeling immersive, drastically cutting down on loading screens and texture pop-in that would otherwise cripple an HDD-based experience.

New technologies have also paved the way. Game engines are now built with the assumption that data will be fed from an SSD in real-time. Then there is Microsoft's DirectStorage, a game-changer that allows game data to be decompressed and processed directly by the GPU, bypassing the CPU bottleneck. This tech is the secret sauce behind today’s sprawling, visually dense worlds that load in a blink of an eye.

Above all, the turning point was the late 2010s, when NVMe SSDs hit their stride. Moving beyond the sluggish SATA interface, these drives offered read/write speeds five to six times faster. By 2018, the price gap with SATA began to close, and a significant price drop in 2023 finally moved them into every gamer's rig. Developers have simply caught up to the reality that the average player is now equipped with the hardware to handle the future.