New laptop has 66 GB of system data
The system data on the laptop takes up 66 gigabytes. At the same time, there are no files or applications on the laptop, it is new.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6
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“System” data is an amalgam of files that don’t easily fall into the defined categories of “Audio" “Movies” “Photos” “Apps” and “Backups”. This data will increase or decrease as you use the computer.
Typically, a brand new Mac may have 30-40 GB of data on its drive, including apps and other miscellaneous files. There are hundreds of thousands of files on a new computer.
You can’t directly manage the contents of system data. That is done by macOS. The category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.
This from Apple on the subject of freeing up space:
Free up storage space on Mac - Apple Support
We see questions about this every day in the community, and the impact on total storage is usually greatest on Macs that have low storage capacity; those with 256GB startup drives. If your new Mac has only 256 GB, you should seriously consider returning that Mac and buying one with a minimum of 512 GB of storage. If you purchased directly from Apple then you have a 14-day window to return for refund.