What is the Largest Open World in Gaming?

From Grand Theft Auto V to Final Fantasy XV, we explore the largest open worlds in video games.

[Geobros]

I think Breath of the Wild is big too.

[NecrumOddBoy]

It's not too big. Its too empty.

[Shiken]

False, but whatever helps you sleep at night.

[notachance]

true, true

[jznrpg]

It is empty but it is suppose to be after the end of the world. I just wish the enemies were much more varied.

[TekoIie]

@NecrumOddBoy

It's cool if you believe its empty. Just means you think AC, The Witcher 3, GTA, Horizon: ZD, Spiderman, Skyrim and Fallout are all empty. If you disagree please tell me all the things they filled every foot of their world with that BotW didn't in some way.

Bet no one will.

[dillydadally]

Wow, can someone explain why N4G is so anti-Nintendo? Anything bashing Nintendo or something related to Nintendo gets upvoted. I don't get it.

[TheEnigma313]

It's a huge world, but can get boring.

[Nintentional]

I’m over 220 hours into that game, and I havent even started a new file yet, or even played any of the dlc. Zelda isn’t even my favorite Nintendo franchise, and there’s a few gripes I have with the game, but it’s never once been boring in my playthrough, dude. I’m curious as to what games you find entertaining if Breath of the Wild bores you lol

[TheEnigma313]

I never said the game bored me. I loved it. I meant the open world can sometimes get boring. It seem too open for no reason.

[Lord_Sloth]

Nintentional......Totally unbias source.

[bluefox755]

If we're counting procedurally generated games, then NMS. Otherwise, probably an MMO.

[staticall]

Size doesn't matter, IMO. Like Ghost Recon Wildlands, world is really big, yes, but it's mostly dead and boring.

«What is the Most Interesting and Living Open World in Gaming» would be a better question

[nommers]

You’d have to go to seminlinear games or hub world games for that. Open world games plateau at a certain point because their openness starts to overtake each part of the world’s significance. Typically in open world games what you do is less important because everything around you is a pick and choose smorgasbord; with lesser interesting consequences than a more contained experience.

[Prince-Ali]

Yakuza strongly disagrees with you...

[Imalwaysright]

Imo it depends on how open world games are designed. If devs put focus on the world and make it as interactive as they can, give incentive to explore it and give the player choice and freedom then having an open world makes sense. If it the world is designed to just be a means to tell a story, is basically a map filled with a bunch of icons with little focus put into it and give you an illusion of freedom where devs tell you where to go and give you a list of things to do, then devs might as well stop wasting time and resources and make those games linear or hub based.

[PhantomS42]

Going to be Red Dead Redemption 2 in a few weeks if R* if they really keep the promises they've been talking about in the recent trailers. A lot of marketing over exaggerate how "alive" their open worlds are when most of them are dead which is a huge reason why I really don't care for open worlds anymore, it's more of a buzzword for marketing and a bullet point on the back of the box more than anything. R* is good with open worlds so I'm not doubting them to bring us back to the wild west.

[eddie420]

GTAV is one of the Best. I don't know the biggest.. But, The Crew games are quiet big. I only got the beta of Crew 2. But, the first Crew was Big. Driver San Francisco is also a big game and has amazing driving physics. We need Ubisoft to make another Driver.. Maybe Ps5.

[Jrios355]

It's talking about the largest open world games, not the best. And just because size doesn't matter, doesn't mean we can't admire the sheer size of it.

[Z501]

Glad they didn't forget XCX.

[PhantomS42]

The scale in that game still amazes me. Even in the mech you still feel dwarfed.

[dimasok]

And ppl were hyping up Odyssey map size... these games make it look pathetic!

[spicelicka]

Map size doesn't mean shit though. In fact, travelling through miles of repetitive areas for your next quest can be quite annoying.

[dimasok]

Examples? Preferrably from the ones in the article.

[sampsonon]

would no man's sky count?

[Nexus_Digital]

We've excluded procedurally generated maps to some degree, but we plan on doing a follow-up exclusively to those soon. And some of them are insanely massive!

[sampsonon]

ok

[ClemFandango]

It’s daggerfall. It’ll always be daggerfall

[franwex]

Beat me to it!

[Lon3wolf]

Apparently not:

Guild Wars Nightfall

[zachyBROosevelt]

Minecraft is and always will have the biggest open world map if you choose so

[TheColbertinator]

Daggerfall. Damn game was blocky as hell but huge