Xbox Series X loads some games 80% faster

Xbox Series X loading times are as much faster than Xbox One X loading times. Multiple tests have shown that some games load as much as 82% faster — and many of these titles weren’t designed with Microsoft’s newest console in mind.

Today is the day that media outlets were allowed to discuss specifics about the Xbox Series X. New features such as Quick Resume were touted as saving players a lot of waiting, but one of the most astonishing takeaways was how much faster current-gen games loaded on the next-gen console.

How much faster are Xbox Series X loading times?

From the data we’ve seen thus far, the Xbox Series X loading times represent a 23–83% improvement over the Xbox Series X when playing current-gen games on the new console. There’s a lot of nuances to explore here, though, and these tests show just how tough it is to get consistent data with something like loading times.

For example, data from The Verge shows that Call of Duty: Warzone loads 5 seconds faster on the Xbox Series X. That’s not much of an improvement at first glance, but it only takes 21 seconds to launch the game on the Xbox One X. Remedy’s Control — a game that is roughly the same age — showed a much more impressive improvement of 82.75%, loading 48 seconds faster on the Xbox Series X according to GameSpot’s data.

Xbox Series X loading times don’t show consistent improvements across the board, however. Both sites tested The Outer Worlds and Red Dead Redemption 2. The Outer Worlds showed a 74–78% improvement in loading time, but Red Dead Redemption 2 showed a 25–70% improvement in loading time. Both of these games are massive RPGs with a lot of variables such as what area of the game is loading and what’s contained in the save data. Loading time improvements for games of this style will be highly variable depending on these factors.

Nearly every game tested by both sites demonstrated Xbox Series X loading times under one minute. The only exception is No Man’s Sky, a massive game that continues to release exciting new content. Even in that case, the loading time improved from 2 minutes and 13 seconds on the Xbox One X to 1 minute and 27 seconds on the Xbox Series X.

It’s clear that current-gen games will load a lot faster on the Xbox Series X. There’s still a lot of questions to answer, though — can the lower specs of the Xbox Series S show similar strong improvements? Will we get the same loading times with the pricey Xbox Series X expandable storage? This will take some time to uncover, but it’s patently clear that Xbox Series X shows marked improvements over its predecessor.