Build size creeps up quietly and then someone notices the download is putting people off. Guessing wastes days, so read the report instead.
After a build, Unity writes a size breakdown into the Editor log. Open the Console, use the panel menu to open the editor log, and search for "Build Report". You get assets sorted by size, plus totals per category: textures, meshes, audio, animations, scripts, and the engine itself.
What is nearly always at the top:
Textures. Almost always the biggest line, and almost always because something is imported at 2048 or 4096 that nobody looks at closely. Set a sensible max size per platform in the importer, and use the right compression for the target. Uncompressed or RGBA32 on a mobile build is the usual culprit.
Audio. Long music tracks imported as uncompressed WAV. Music should stream and be compressed; short frequent effects should be decompressed on load. Getting these two backwards costs either size or memory.
Anything in a Resources folder. Everything in Resources ships whether or not it is used, and it cannot be stripped. If you have been putting things there for convenience, that is your quick win.
Duplicated dependencies. If two bundles or scenes both reference the same material, it can be included twice. The report will show the same asset twice.
Two settings worth checking once per project: managed stripping level, and whether you are shipping debug symbols in a release build.
The habit that saves you: look at the report after every milestone build, not once at the end. A 40 MB jump is obvious the week it happens and a mystery six months later.
What is your current size, and what is the top line in your report? Post it and we will tell you if it looks normal.
After a build, Unity writes a size breakdown into the Editor log. Open the Console, use the panel menu to open the editor log, and search for "Build Report". You get assets sorted by size, plus totals per category: textures, meshes, audio, animations, scripts, and the engine itself.
What is nearly always at the top:
Textures. Almost always the biggest line, and almost always because something is imported at 2048 or 4096 that nobody looks at closely. Set a sensible max size per platform in the importer, and use the right compression for the target. Uncompressed or RGBA32 on a mobile build is the usual culprit.
Audio. Long music tracks imported as uncompressed WAV. Music should stream and be compressed; short frequent effects should be decompressed on load. Getting these two backwards costs either size or memory.
Anything in a Resources folder. Everything in Resources ships whether or not it is used, and it cannot be stripped. If you have been putting things there for convenience, that is your quick win.
Duplicated dependencies. If two bundles or scenes both reference the same material, it can be included twice. The report will show the same asset twice.
Two settings worth checking once per project: managed stripping level, and whether you are shipping debug symbols in a release build.
The habit that saves you: look at the report after every milestone build, not once at the end. A 40 MB jump is obvious the week it happens and a mystery six months later.
What is your current size, and what is the top line in your report? Post it and we will tell you if it looks normal.