Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Owners, How's Your Storage Looking In 2026?

It's an annual tradition for us here at Pure Xbox to poll the community about how you've been managing your Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S storage over the past twelve months, and somehow it's already time for the 2026 edition!

Going back over the last few years, it's interesting to see how the poll results have changed. In 2024, for example, more of you told us that your Xbox Series X and/or Xbox Series S internal storage was "91-100%" full than in 2025, but more people also bought some kind of extra storage option for their console in 2025.

In other words, it looks like Expansion Cards and external HDD/SDD solutions have become more popular as the years have rolled on, helping to slightly reduce the pressure of the internal storage limit for each console.

Here's a look at last year's results if you're interested:

It's also interesting to go back and compare with 2023 when it comes to external storage. In 2023 and 2024, external hard drives were more popular than Expansion Cards for the Series X and Series S, but 2025's results revealed that the 1TB Expansion Card had received the most votes instead of external hard drives for both consoles.

Again though, it's not that surprising — external hard drives can't run native Series X and S games, and considering the generation is five years old at this point, Expansion Cards have started to feel like more and more of a necessity.

So, let's see what the 2026 results bring us! We're fascinated to find out just how full your internal storage is on your Xbox Series X and/or Xbox Series S, as well as whether you're using external storage to help top it up.

The same polls from the past few years are down below, and please do elaborate in the comments!

Xbox Series X Owners, How Full Is Your Internal Storage? (1,504 votes)

  1. 0-10%  0.9%
  2. 11-20%1%
  3. 21-30%1%
  4. 31-40%2%
  5. 41-50%5%
  6. 51-60%6%
  7. 61-70%8%
  8. 71-80%15%
  9. 81-90%24%
  10. 91-100%38%

Xbox Series S Owners, How Full Is Your Internal Storage? (484 votes)

  1. 0-10%3%
  2. 11-20%1%
  3. 21-30%1%
  4. 31-40%  0.8%
  5. 41-50%3%
  6. 51-60%3%
  7. 61-70%5%
  8. 71-80%9%
  9. 81-90%21%
  10. 91-100%53%

Xbox Series X Owners, Do You Use Any External Storage? (1,753 votes)

  1. Yes, I bought a 4TB Expansion Card3%
  2. Yes, I bought a 2TB Expansion Card15%
  3. Yes, I bought a 1TB Expansion Card25%
  4. Yes, I bought a 512GB Expansion Card1%
  5. Yes, I bought an external HDD/SDD21%
  6. The Expansion Cards are too expensive right now25%
  7. No, I don't think I really need it9%

Xbox Series S Owners, Do You Use Any External Storage? (566 votes)

  1. Yes, I bought a 4TB Expansion Card3%
  2. Yes, I bought a 2TB Expansion Card8%
  3. Yes, I bought a 1TB Expansion Card20%
  4. Yes, I bought a 512GB Expansion Card4%
  5. Yes, I bought an external HDD/SDD20%
  6. The Expansion Cards are too expensive right now31%
  7. No, I don't think I really need it14%

Xbox fans, how's your Series X and/or Series S storage looking in 2026? Come and tell us!