Highlights

• The Witcher 3's lush world offers hand-crafted quests, making it a gold standard in RPG development today.
• With a 142 km Sq. map, it outmatches predecessors in sheer size.
• For bigger maps, games like Arma 3 and Death Stranding offer expansive landscapes, providing challenging but rewarding experiences.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt remains one of the gold standards of RPG development these days. Part of The Witcher 3's success stems from its generous and lush game world, which is also one of the biggest in the fantasy RPG genre. These aren't just mostly empty areas either; they're filled to the brim with hand-crafted side quests and other activities for players to pursue.

With DLCs and the Skellige map included, The Witcher 3's entire game world measures at roughly 88 square miles (or 142 square km). That's a lot of ground to cover. However, as impressive as that may be, some other games — even those released before The Witcher 3 — have even bigger maps.

Readers should note that maps that utilize flight as the only mode of traversal were excluded so as to allow for a fairer comparison.

Updated on April 12, 2024, by Ritwik Mitra: The Witcher 3 features an impressively massive open world that fans love to explore time and time again. The release of the Next-Gen Update gave players another reason to give this title a shot, with the addition of ray-tracing, new quests, and improved gameplay compelling many gamers to revisit a video game that continues to be riveting to this day. The massive world of The Witcher 3 and its many gameplay hubs are a joy to explore, and fans who want to enjoy more games with massive open worlds that are bigger than what CD Projekt Red's magnum opus has to offer will be pleased by the vast selection of titles that meet the criteria.

17 Assassin's Creed Odyssey

90 Square Miles (233 Square Km.)

The reinvention of Assassin's Creed was something fans had waited for. While this new direction was both praised and criticized, one thing that fans wholeheartedly agreed on was the fact that the open worlds of the new Assassin's Creed games were massive.

In fact, games like Odyssey and Valhalla were criticized at times for how gigantic their worlds actually were, especially when there wasn't a lot of substance in them for players to enjoy. Still, most people didn't mind exploring these massive worlds and uncovering the wealth of secrets on offer, finding some valuable loot in the process. For those looking to truly get lost in an Assassin's Creed game, the world of Odyssey is sure to provide ample room to do so.

16 Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

90.2 Square Miles (233 Square Km.)

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is one of the most ambitious projects for the Assassin's Creed franchise. That's because it boasts 90 square miles (145 square km) of playable area. Ubisoft cheated a bit since this area is mostly a mock Caribbean Sea, but a huge part of the game involves sailing.

Some of the game's islands are inaccessible, but that's only a small percentage in the grand scheme of things. Black Flag is no doubt bigger than The Witcher 3, even with its DLCs included. Of course, all that shiny blue would have been a chore to explore without the acclaimed sea shanties.

15 Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

135 Square Miles (350 Square Km.)

• Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
• Released: October 6, 2009
• Developer: Codemasters
• Genres: Tactical Shooter, Strategy

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a military sim game. It boasts a great 135 square miles (217 square km) of playable area. For a 2009 game, this was one heck of an achievement, though most of this is empty land since the game values realism.

Dragon Rising can be a rather unforgiving game. It's a hardcore military simulator where some players might find the controls and shooting mechanics a bit clunky, especially when compared to the likes of Battlefield or Call of Duty. As such, playing the game just because of its big map is not exactly advised.

14 Xenoblade Chronicles X

154 Square Miles (399 Square Km.)

The world design present in the Xenoblade Chronicles games was so influential that its development actively played a hand in shaping Breath of the Wild's world, which is hefty praise indeed. The many landmarks and open-world variety are a huge reason why the Xenoblade Chronicles games became such a huge hit.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the series' best games, featuring a mind-bogglingly massive open world that fans can explore. This, coupled with fun tactical combat and a great story, makes this title a blast to play through and something that fans of the series should not miss out on.

13 Arma 3

180 Square Miles (466 Square Km.)

Alongside Black Flag, Arma 3 was also one of the most generous games to come out in 2013. The military simulator has some impressive maps that, if put together, add up to 180 square miles (290 square km) for the base game. That's a huge playable area for characters who move realistically.

Even with Arma 3's own roster of military transport vehicles, it can take a while to get from one end of the map to another. Doing that solo is also ill-advised, as single-player Arma 3 is a rough experience, and the game is best enjoyed with a well-coordinated group of friends.

12 Death Stranding

230 Square Miles (595 Square Km.)

Another game with a landscape that many players might consider tedious to traverse is Death Stranding. Players get to enjoy all 230 square miles (595 square km) of this polarizing Kojima masterpiece. And no, it doesn't have that title because players will long for sweet release after getting stranded in the environment with a heavy package on their backs — it's much deeper than that.

All that added Kojima flavor gives enough context for players to go out and rebuild America after an apocalyptic event fractured the whole place. Traversal is also not just limited to walking anymore as, after numerous updates, the game has added some quality-of-life improvements.

11 True Crime: Streets Of LA

240 Square Miles (621 Square Km.)

Before Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas made a large map dedicated to parodying Los Angeles, True Crime: Streets of LA was already miles ahead — or miles larger, in this case. It features quite a faithful recreation of Los Angeles, complete with Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.

The street names are also there, along with the major roads. The size? 240 square miles (386 square km) of a digital trip to LA, assuming players can stomach the ancient graphics. In any case, this open world crime-fighting game is the spiritual predecessor to classics like Sleeping Dogs.

10 Black Desert Online

247 Square Miles (640 Square Km.)

On the topic of unforgiving games, Black Desert Online is quickly becoming larger with all the content being added to it. It's a sandbox MMORPG, where players can form guilds and claim their own nations or territories. For that to happen, the game needs a huge map, and even so, its 247 square miles (639 square km) of area is never enough for all the power-hungry guilds.

This area is also playable and has tons of activities scattered throughout it, from grinding mobs of enemies to harvesting rare resources so players can sell them on the market. If players get tired of land, they can build their own boat or ship to hunt some whales or just explore the seas.

9 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands

247 Square Miles (640 Square Km.)

Ubisoft might have lost its touch when making Ghost Recon games, but there's no denying the effort they put into making their games vast. Take, for instance, Ghost Recon Wildlands. It's a game set in fictional modern Bolivia, which is oddly composed mostly of countryside scenery.

All that adds up to a total area of roughly 247 square miles (640 square km), making vehicles a necessity — off-road vehicles, mostly. But even then, Wildlands is known for its clumsy vehicle handling, so driving here isn't exactly a pleasant experience. Regardless, it's one of the richest landscapes Ubisoft has crafted.

8 Just Cause 3

400 Square Miles (1036 Square Km.)

The Just Cause games have always been about pushing the boundaries of map size and allowing absurdity when it comes to destructive gameplay. Just Cause 3 is actually sort of tied with Just Cause 4 when it comes to map size. Both games feature locales that are roughly 400 square miles.

Regardless, most Just Cause games see the player controlling a walking calamity who's out to wreak havoc on some fictional country's oppressive military government. Traveling around isn't a problem as players can easily attach themselves to jet planes and parachute down.

7 Asheron's Call

500 Square Miles (1295 Square Km.)

• Platform: PC
• Released: October 31, 1999
• Developer: Turbine
• Genre: MMORPG

Asheron's Call is an MMORPG, so it already had an advantage over The Witcher 3 when it came to map size. It needed something bigger to accommodate all those players, after all. This old MMORPG is officially dead today, though it had a good run thanks in part to its 500 square miles of playable space.

A lot of this is water, of course, but that doesn't take into account instanced dungeons and other enclosed areas. The huge open world certainly paid off for Asheron's Call since it was one of the first few MMORPGs back in the late 1990s to house thousands of players on a single server.

6 Final Fantasy 15

700 Square Miles (1813 Square Km.)

The measurement above is a conservative estimate. Other numbers crunch up Final Fantasy 15's game world to be roughly 1,800 square km., which is quite dizzying. It's just that a lot of players likely won't notice all that space in the game while cruising in their flying car with the Backstreet Boys in tow.

In any case, that's a lot of land for Prince Noctis to reclaim after his father's empire was invaded. Given how beautiful Final Fantasy 15 is, one can consider it to be an even bigger achievement than The Witcher 3, at least visually.

5 Fuel

5,560 Square Miles (14,400 Square Km.)

Fuel's map size was nothing short of ambitious. The more than 14,400 square km. of playing space was set in a post-apocalyptic United States after the sun destroyed civilizations. This meant that the developers didn't need to render all the buildings and the urbanity; the US map here consisted mostly of roads and rough terrain.

It's practically Mad Max but set in the US. And sure enough, that map size was justified well since Fuel incentivized high-octane gameplay where players usually don't take their fingers off the accelerator button regardless of their vehicle.

4 Guild Wars Nightfall

Estimated 15,000 Square Miles (38,850 Square Km.)

• Platform: PC
• Released: October 26, 2006
• Developer: ArenaNet
• Genres: RPG, Adventure

Here's some good proof that bigger isn't always better. While Guild Wars Nightfall is often hailed as one of the biggest maps in gaming, a lot of that size doesn't really translate to playable areas. Those who have played the game will often note that a lot of the areas in Nightfall are instanced.

There are set paths for traversal, combat, and quests, which means that some areas are just additional empty polygons for show. Still, it all adds up to the illusion, and to be fair, a lot of the mountains and seas in The Witcher 3 are mostly empty anyway.

3 Lord Of The Rings Online

Estimated 30,000 Square Miles (77,700 Square Km.)

No wonder Frodo and Sam got cranky during their journey to Mount Doom; Middle-earth is a little too big, even for a video game world. There were lots of disputes about the game world size in Lord of the Rings Online, but even with in-game estimates, it's still larger than The Witcher 3's game world. The expansions also contribute to this.

What makes it impressive compared to other MMORPGs is the lack of a loading screen for most of the game's zones. Of course, the map mostly consists of large and empty stretches of farmlands and mountains. Some of them are not playable areas, but for a 2007 game, this kind of map size estimate was more than impressive.

2 The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall

62,000 Square Miles (160,579 Square Km.)

Sure enough, the Elder Scrolls games won't lag behind when introducing their own humongous game world. Daggerfall or even Arena holds the title for the most massive landmass available for players to explore. For Daggerfall, the game map is an incredible 62,000 square miles (161,579 square km) of Tamriel overload — and that's just one province.

How did they do it, and how well does it compare to other Elder Scrolls games? Not great. While dizzyingly immense, Daggerfall's landmass is procedurally generated, and the worst part about that is that the assets are re-used far too much. So, while the game world is big, it's also annoyingly shallow since there's almost no difference in appearance. In this case, gamers are sure to choose The Witcher 3's smaller game world. Sometimes, it's about quality over quantity.

1 No Man's Sky

Unfathomable (256 Galaxies)

No Man's Sky is cheating a bit here since the whole game is procedurally generated, but this is a game where one planet can feel bigger than The Witcher 3's whole map. The typical planet in No Man's Sky is estimated to be around at least 70+ miles in diameter.

Now, since No Man's Sky has more than a billion planets, give or take, that makes its size a little too big for comparison, assuming that players document each and every planet. It's a different kind of game, of course, and The Witcher 3's environments still have more depth, but when it comes to wide, open areas, it's hard to beat this game and others with procedurally-generated maps.