Kingdom Come Deliverance Update 1.9.5-1.9.6 -16... May 2026

In an era where Call of Duty titles regularly exceed 150 GB and publishers push 50 GB “day one” patches, Warhorse Studios bucked the trend. Instead of adding more content, they refined what existed.

When players first saw update 1.9.5 queued on Steam, Epic Games Store, or their console, confusion reigned. The download size was often reported as 20–25 GB, yet after installation, the game’s total folder size shrank. Users on Reddit and the official Warhorse forums quickly confirmed: their installs had dropped from roughly 68 GB to just over 52 GB.

Update 1.9.6 followed shortly after, adding another few hundred megabytes of fixes but retaining the new, leaner file structure. Kingdom Come Deliverance update 1.9.5-1.9.6 -16...

To understand the importance of these patches, one must understand the rendering backbone of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The game utilizes the CryEngine, a platform notorious for high hardware demands. The 1.9.x branch was primarily focused on the implementation and stabilization of the Vulkan Renderer.

For a long time, players on Windows and Linux (via Proton) struggled with the DirectX 11 implementation, which suffered from shader compilation stutters and memory leaks. The move to the 1.9.x branch was Warhorse Studios' attempt to modernize the renderer for better compatibility with modern GPUs and the Steam Deck. In an era where Call of Duty titles

Perhaps the most impactful technical change in this update cycle was the redefinition of the Hardcore Mode.

This was the last major patch for KCD before Warhorse moved on to the sequel. The download size was often reported as 20–25

Key changes in 1.9.6 / build 16: