Should my file size be this large? How can I lower file size without losing lots of quality?

[BTheEPIC]

Recently I recorded 2 and a half hours of Minecraft gameplay with the below OBS settings.

However, the issue is that the 1080p 60fps file ended up being 56.1 GB, which is a lot of storage usage. It also caused my 2 hour edited file to also be larger than usual at 7 GB, which my internet connection struggles to upload to YouTube.

How can I use less storage for videos like this, but still have high quality gameplay recordings for YouTube? I have thought about switching to Simple mode and just choosing High Quality, but I wasn't sure if that was considerably lower quality, and I would have to stop using multiple audio tracks (which I could if I had to).

 

[koala]

This is something you can only work out with trial & error. If you increase the CQ value, you decrease the quality, thus decrease the file size. Adding 3 to whatever CQ value you have is about half the file size, reducing by 3 is about double the file size.
Make a bunch of recordings with different CQ values and judge which quality you accept.

 

[BTheEPIC]

This is something you can only work out with trial & error. If you increase the CQ value, you decrease the quality, thus decrease the file size. Adding 3 to whatever CQ value you have is about half the file size, reducing by 3 is about double the file size.
Make a bunch of recordings with different CQ values and judge which quality you accept.

I'm not really that much of a videophile when it comes to quality, so I probably wouldn't notice a lot of difference myself. I just want my videos to look the best that they can for my YouTube audience. Because of that, would a Simple preset such as High Quality, Medium File Size or Indistinguishible Quality be better for me, but still look high quality for YouTube? And if so, is High Quality good or should I use Indistinguishable Quality?
Thank you in advance!

 

[R1CH]

High Quality should be more than sufficient for YouTube. Do pay attention to that MP4 warning though, recording for two hours and losing the whole file because OBS crashed is not something you'd enjoy.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

And note the on-screen OBS warning about recording to MP4... basically.. just don't.
If you need MP4 vs MKV, then remux afterwards (my 1080p 30fps 8Gb file for 1 hour takes about 15 seconds to remux after recording is over)