SAV File Documentation
Summary
A saved game file is a snapshot of your progress, level, inventory, position, world changes, written by one specific game in its own private format. There is no universal .sav standard or viewer: a save from one game is unreadable by another. Its generic MIME type is application/octet-stream. You “open” a .sav by putting it in that game’s save folder and loading it inside the game; opening it in another program just shows gibberish. To move a save between machines, copy the .sav into the same game’s save folder on the other computer.
Technical details
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Saved game file |
| File extension | .sav |
| MIME type | application/octet-stream (generic) |
| Format type | Per-game save state — no common schema |
| Developer | No single owner; each game defines its own layout |
| Category | Game files |
| Contents | Progress, inventory, position, world state, settings |
| Magic number | None — contents are application-defined |
| Standard / spec | None — format varies per title |
| Opened with | Only the game or emulator that created it |
| Typical location (Windows) | Documents, AppData, or Steam userdata |
| Typical location (macOS) | ~/Library/Application Support/… |
| Typical location (Linux) | ~/.local/share or Proton/Steam compatdata |
| Emulator use | Cartridge save RAM (SRAM) image for some emulators |
| Safe to move | Yes, into the same game/version/platform’s save folder |
| Convertible | No — saves are bound to the exact title |
| Also-used-by | SPSS / PSPP statistics data file (starts with $FL2) |
| Related extensions | .save, .dat, .srm, .state, .ss0 |
What is a SAV file?
“.sav” is short for “save”, and its most common meaning is a saved game file. When you save progress in a video game, the game writes the current state, your character, level, inventory, position, world changes and settings, into a .sav file. The important thing to understand up front is that there is no shared .sav standard. A Half-Life 2 save, an OpenTTD save, a Nancy Drew save and a Game Boy Advance emulator save all use the same extension yet are mutually unreadable, because each game invents its own layout. The extension tells you the file’s purpose, not its structure.
That is why a .sav has no universal magic number and no format specification: the bytes inside are whatever the game that wrote them decided, and only that program knows how to interpret them. Some titles prefix a small version tag or checksum so they can reject a tampered or mismatched save on load, but even that is game-specific, not a shared header.
Opening it: only the game that created it
The honest answer to “how do I open a .sav” is “with the exact game or emulator that created it”. You do not open a save in a viewer; you place the file in that game’s save directory and load it from the in-game menu. On Windows those directories are commonly under Documents, in AppData, or in Steam’s userdata folder; on macOS they usually sit under ~/Library/Application Support; on Linux they live under ~/.local/share or, for games run through Proton, inside the Steam compatdata path. Third-party tools rarely help. The few that exist are per-game save editors built by communities for one specific title, and they can corrupt a save if misused.
Emulators are a distinct case worth calling out. Handheld and console emulators such as Dolphin (GameCube/Wii) or no$gba and mGBA (Game Boy Advance/DS) store a cartridge’s battery-backed save RAM (SRAM) as a .sav. Those files can sometimes move between different emulators that emulate the same hardware, or onto a physical flashcart, because they represent the same underlying save RAM image, not a PC game’s bespoke format.
How to tell what actually made a .sav
If you have a stray .sav and do not know its origin, opening it in Notepad shows random characters, because most game saves are binary written for one program. A few clues still help. The folder it came from usually names the game. Peeking at the first bytes in a hex viewer can reveal a readable tag some games embed. And one readable marker matters for disambiguation: an unrelated format, the SPSS/PSPP statistics data file, also uses .sav, and it begins with the text marker $FL2. If you see $FL2 at the start, the file is research data opened in SPSS, PSPP, R or Python, not a game save at all.
Backing up and transferring a save
The realistic thing you do with a .sav is back it up or move it. To transfer progress to another computer, copy the file from the game’s save folder to the same folder on the other machine. This works only when the game, and usually its version and platform, match, since saves are tied to a specific build. Many modern titles handle this for you through cloud saves (Steam Cloud, console cloud sync), in which case the .sav may sync automatically and manual copying is unnecessary. Before you overwrite anything, keep a copy of the existing save; a bad transfer or a mismatched version can leave a game refusing to load the file.
References
- Dolphin Emulator — GameCube/Wii save data handling
- mGBA — Game Boy Advance emulator (cartridge
.sav) - Steam — back up and restore game files and saves
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