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Delete and make space: iOS 8 requires at least 5.7 GB of free space to install

Will Hearthstone and World of Tanks have to go?

Delete and make space: iOS 8 requires at least 5.7 GB of free space to install

It's early days when it comes to measuring the uptake for iOS 8.0 - something Apple says is "the biggest release since the launch of the App Store".

And as pretty much everyone has commented, it's certainly the "biggest release" when it comes to the amount of storage required to install the OS upgrade.

Although the file size itself is 1.1 GB, it requires "at least 5.7 GB" of available storage on-device in order to be downloaded and then installed.

Clean decks

For the majority of users, this requirement means they will have to uninstall - if only temporarily - a lot of games and apps.

It's all friction in an ecosystem that has long trumped its simplicity and coherence compared to the massive fragmentation experienced by owners of Android devices.

And perhaps that's why - according to the live tracker from app analytic outfit Fiksu, uptake of iOS 8 is - at time of writing - higher than iOS 5, but lower than that iOS 6 and iOS 7.

You can track the update percentage, which is calculated by active iOS users of apps and games using Fiksu's services - here.

There's also the wider assumption that unless you have a particular reason to immediately update your operating system, it's perhaps better to wait until the next update to get a more optimised download.

Certainly it will be interesting to see whether iOS 8 is installed on 50 percent of Fiksu-tracked devices within the two week period it took iOS 7.

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Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.