Quite some time has gone by since the troubled release of CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, and fans have now had time to compare its map to those of other games and, in one recent case, to the real-world city of San Francisco. Thanks to these comparisons, it has become obvious that the seat of far-future corporate dystopia isn’t quite as large as it seemed. Night City may be dense, but in terms of total land area it’s surprisingly compact.
That shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise; when the game launched nearly two years ago, it was riddled with bugs and was quickly written off by some as a major disappointment. Few believed that it could ever match the incredible legacy of the Witcher trilogy that developer CD Projekt Red had previously helmed, and an undersized map seemed to be the least of the fanbase’s worries. Fortunately, Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way since then, but the overall size of Night City still remains in question.
As pointed out by Reddit user u/seashellvalley760 on the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit, Night City is downright tiny when compared to anything in the real world. In fact, when laid over a map of modern-day San Fransisco, it hardly takes up a fifth of the city. This could perhaps be explained by Night City’s unprecedented verticality, but, in all likelihood, it’s a result of current game design limitations. Should the recently-confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 sequel also take place in Night City, there’s certainly potential for expansion. However, for now, any serious feats of civil engineering will either be the work of dedicated modders or come about as part of the upcoming Phantom Liberty premium expansion.
The city of San Francisco has actually appeared in video games on more than one occasion, although these open worlds probably weren’t much larger than what’s seen in Cyberpunk 2077 when accounting for the large Badlands sections of the map. Titles like Watch Dogs 2, Driver: San Francisco, and even Horizon: Forbidden West offered new interpretations of the real-world Bay Area, and, while impressive, the actual thing almost certainly has them beat in terms of size.
With all that in mind, this comparison probably wouldn’t have gained as much traction as it did were it not for Cyberpunk 2077’s sudden resurgence in popularity. Spurned on primarily by the acclaimed Cyberpunk Edgerunner’s anime series, the game seems to have a bright future ahead of it despite the numerous setbacks it faced at launch. Perhaps all the added fame will encourage CD Projekt Red to attempt an even larger open world in the sequel.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.