What size is a 3 minute WAV?

At 44,100 Hz, 16-bit stereo it is about 30 MB. Compressed audio is a fraction of that.

Which format should I ship?

Music is usually compressed Ogg or MP3. Short effects are often WAV so they play with no delay.

Usually yes. Positional sounds in 3D are mixed by the engine anyway, and mono halves the size. Keep music and ambience in stereo.

44.1 or 48 kHz for music and most effects. 22 kHz is fine for retro sounds and some voice lines, and halves the size again.

Music and voice are often the biggest part of a build. Enter length and format to estimate the size before you hit your platform's limit.

Length (seconds)Number of filesSample rateBit depthChannelsCompressed bitrate (kbps)

30.28 MB uncompressed WAV

2.75 MB compressed at 128 kbps

91% smaller when compressed

Estimates only. Typical games ship music as compressed Ogg or MP3 and short effects as WAV.

Web and mobile builds
Browser games and mobile stores have download limits; see how many minutes of music fit before you pick a format.
Game jam size limits
Some jams cap the build size. Check that the soundtrack fits before the deadline, not after.
Deciding what to stream
Long music tracks are usually streamed from disk and short effects loaded into memory; the sizes tell you which is which.