How much RAM do you actually need? I did the research so you don't overspend

From the top 20 most popular PC games

· TechRadar

Features By Marcus Mears III published 24 December 2025

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RAM prices have risen to ridiculous heights over the past 6 months. It's to the point where you may well be better off purchasing a prebuilt PC than trying to source the parts at reasonable prices yourself.

And with a looming GPU shortage coming in 2026, it's only going to get worse for prospective PC builders.

So I decided to take a look at the 20 most popular PC games of the year (by player count) to determine how much RAM you actually need in your gaming rig. If the games on this list are available in your library and you meet at least the minimum recommended RAM, I'd strongly suggest holding off on any purchases until prices settle back down.

But if you just can't wait to build or upgrade your PC (I know how exciting it is!), let this list act as a guide to your RAM purchasing needs.

Not a gamer? Skip ahead to the how much RAM do I need on my laptop section.

RAM requirements for the top 20 most popular PC games

Swipe to scroll horizontally

GameMinimumRecommendedMax
Fortnite8GB16GB16GB
Roblox1GBN/AN/A
Minecraft2GB4GBN/A
League of Legends2GB4GB16GB
Counter-Strike 28GBN/AN/A
Valorant4GBN/AN/A
Overwatch 26GB8GBN/A
Apex Legends6GB8GBN/A
Rocket League4GB8GBN/A
Genshin Impact8GB16GBN/A
PUBG: Battlegrounds8GB16GBN/A
GTA: V (Enhanced)8GB16GBN/A
Dota 24GBN/AN/A
Helldivers 28GB16GBN/A
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)8GB12GB16GB
Arc Raiders12GB16GBN/A
Battlefield 616GB16GBN/A
Marvel Rivals16GB16GBN/A
Path of Exile 28GB16GBN/A
Rust12GB16GBN/A

Note: Statistics for this list were pulled from Steam's "Top 100 played games by Daily Players" list and estimates from activeplayer.io's "Top 15 Most Popular PC Games of 2025" list. They are not sorted by total player count. RAM requirements were collected from the system requirements sections.

As you can see from the table above, 8GB is by no small margin the most common minimum RAM requirement for modern games.

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