Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013 to a massive horde of positive reviews by critics and fans alike, and all of that was for a good reason. Rockstar's open-world masterpiece was the pinnacle of detail and freedom packed together into one fantastic experience. On top of that, the vast world of Los Santos and parts of San Andreas made it one of the biggest Rockstar games ever.
This is the reason that a lot of people are familiar with the game. And a lot of them consider it to be one of the biggest ones around. While that may be true from a detail point of view, there is a massive list of games out there that totally dominates GTA V's open world in terms of scale.
10 Assassin's Creed: Origins
While not massively large when compared, Assassin's Creed Origins is still a tiny bit bigger than the GTA V. The details in this game are just as good as any other Assassin's Creed title in the series. The game takes place in ancient Egypt and brings life to the world no one has witnessed. This is also what makes it so unique, as the game is about exploring a world in an era that has been long gone. Climbing pyramids has never felt as good as it is in Assassin's Creed Origins.
9 Fallout 4
Fallout 4's world is easily thirty percent bigger than GTA V, but it rarely feels like that. The main reason is the emptiness of the post-apocalyptic world, which is both a good and a bad thing. Bad because people will not notice the size while immersing themselves into the world, mostly fast traveling from one point to the other while doing missions. Good, because the big world, even with fast traveling, is big enough for a variety of locations, encouraging players to explore and feel the role-playing elements.
8 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is one of the best open-world action-adventure games by Ubisoft. And while people might debate on its faithfulness to Assassin's Creed series, there something that's not subjective. That is the size of the game's open-world, which is pretty darn huge. After all, the game is a full-fledged pirate experience in the hood of Assassin's Creed. There are huge islands and areas to explore, with hidden treasures as well as a vast sea waiting out there with animals to hunt and ships to defeat.
7 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
An open-world of RPG game needs to be detailed, significant, and with a substantial explore-ability factor. And The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt contains every bit of that. This game is probably the biggest and most beloved action-RPGs of this era, and that is all because of how amazingly it pulls off the open-world.
There are unique side missions and stories spread around the world that is carefully crafted with dozens of Easter eggs and details. And while some might miss the old level design and puzzles from the first and second games. No one can deny the sheer skill used to bring this open-world to life.
6 Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is more than double the size of Origins, making it the most massive game of the series. The best part about its open-world isn't the scale, but the details that are put into creating this world and making it work. There's no doubt that Ubisoft is slowly amping up the open-world genre in almost every game they introduce, as they understand that gamers love to explore. This is the reason Odyssey isn't just big. It's full of opportunities, missions, and stories.
5 Ghost Recon Wildlands
As mentioned before, Ubisoft is on a roll with open-world games, probably becoming the only publisher to release the most free-roam games ever. Tom Clancy series has also seen this new direction since the last two games Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Ghost Recon Wildlands, are entirely open world. While Breakpoint can easily make this list, there's something about Wildlands that makes it a better choice. And that something is the variety in the environments, details, and the sheer scale.
4 Burnout Paradise
Burnout series has not seen the light in the PS4/Xbox One era, which has made a lot of fans sad. But even without a release, the most recent part of the series is bigger than many current-gen games on the list. Burnout Paradise has to be the best arcade racing game of last-gen.
While some might disagree on this, they can't deny it is one of the biggest arcade racing games ever. Being almost four times the size of GTA V, full of stunts jumps and carefully crafted tracks that no other game from the genre can beat.
3 Just Cause 3
Just Cause series has to be one of the most massive free roam games ever. And the last two entries in the series titled Just Cause 3 and Just Cause 4, have taken it to another level as the open world in the new games is more prominent and much more detailed than ever. The exciting thing is not just the size of the sandbox but also the number of things players can do in the world. Rico can now glide in the air with the help of a wingsuit, use rocket boosts and grapple things together.
2 Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy is a huge series, with 15 games in total not counting the spin-offs. So it is evident that these games were constantly improved with hardware upgrades throughout the years. Going from the realm of 2D to the dimension of 3D was the last big change the game made, until the release of Final Fantasy XV. Here the whole concept was brought to a free-roam environment. And a lot of fans have adored this change, as it lets them free roam in the world with the characters that they've grown to love.
1 The Crew 2
There's not a single racing game in history that lets players be a car, plane, and boat in a map that is basically an entire country. But Crew 2 does that, and it does that pretty well. Now the scale isn't the pixel to pixel copy of United States map, but it is a very well crafted scaled-down version of the same. The game has races taking players almost an hour to complete in real life, which is massive, considering the fact that it is not a cruising tour. Crew 2 has plenty of vehicles and a rapid fast travel system that ensures players are never bored.