As consoles and storage systems have improved, video game maps have grown in size exponentially. For example, the map of the GTA: San Andreas, seemed huge to us in 2004, when the Rockstar Games title was released. It had an extension of 33 square kilometers. However, at present, the most recent Grand Theft Auto, the GTA V, has a surface area of ​​more than 130 square kilometers. All this, if we combine the areas passable on foot or by land vehicles and the aquatic parts, which we can cross by boat, motorboat or even swimming. However, these are not even remotely the games with which larger maps that we have seen In this post we will review the most gigantic terrain that we know of in the world of video games.
What good is a giant map?
One video game is not necessarily better than another because it has a larger map. However, when we talk about titles of open world, the capacity of immersion of the video game improves significantly with an extensive map, where we have to investigate and we can get lost among its neighborhoods, forests and towns. Of course, other factors also enter the equation. It is useless to have a huge map if all the streets follow the same repeating pattern. Or if they directly mark the location of the NPCs that give missions on the map. The experience of getting lost in a virtual world is only satisfying if we feel alone and far from the areas we know, and there is an incentive to go out and investigate.
However, a large map can also hinder the player if there is no content. It is one of the most criticized aspects of Cyberpunk 2077, whose buildings are completely empty, and the missions are not delivered by characters, but by telephone. Another clear case is use of fast travel. If the player continuously uses teleportation instead of exploring the game map, it will not matter how big the terrain is, it will be useless. In this case, video game critics often say that it is a game of "linear open world", since the only usefulness of the map will be to unite the different missions of the game, something that could be done with a simple list.
Come on, a video game map can be very large, but it will not necessarily provide a better experience. In the case of CyberPunk, it is obvious that it was necessary to create a huge city, with ornate buildings, since this subgenre of science fiction demands it. However, developers don't have unlimited time to do their work, so it's often normal that the bigger a map is, the more repetitive—or nonexistent—the interiors of buildings.
Which video game has the biggest map?
Measuring the extension of a virtual terrain is not easy, since we are talking about three dimensions. In the same way, it is not the same to speak of a pre-designed map that another one that leaves generating automatically. First of all, we will only talk about the pre-built maps, and at the end we will comment a little on the possibilities of procedurally generated maps, that is, those that are created by algorithms.
To put some order to the comparison, we will focus only on the surface, ignoring the height of the map, since not all video games allow vertical exploration, although we will have to make a slight exception in galactic exploration games. We will also take into account only games designed in 3D, so that the comparison is as fair as possible. Established these bases, let's get to it:
The Crew (5.180 km2) and The Crew 2 (5.700 km2)
Based in the United States, you will employ more than 45 minutes of your life in traveling the original map The Crew Coast to coast. Both are racing games. The former had some RPG touches and an interesting criminal story behind it, while the latter is more similar to Forza Horizon.
Fuel (18.130 km2)
An racing game de open world with apocalyptic style. In 2009, it won multiple awards for its enormous expanse of land. Its creators thought it would be interesting to make a huge map for players to take advantage of. free roam, as well as moving from one race to another by dodging the game's environmental disasters instead of going through a simple loading screen.
Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1.616 km2)
Although it came out in 1996, Elder Scrolls III beat himself Skyrim as far as the map is concerned. Its graphics will not be anything special, but the game is more extensive than England. The world is huge, and you can spend hundreds and thousands of hours exploring all the secrets that are hidden in the game.
Elite Dangerous
En Elite Dangerous we will be able to travel multiple interplanetary systems and fight all kinds of battles. Its developers used actual measurements to create the map, Therefore, we cannot speak of square kilometers, but of astrophysical units. We can visit some 32 galaxies, being the most distant to almost 160 thousand light years.
Microsoft Flight Simulator (510.000.000 km2)
Microsoft's flight simulator is today the largest 3D game you can play today. The latest version of this airplane video game, released in 2020, not only has an absurdly photorealistic design, but is also as large as our own planet.
Procedurally generated maps
On the other hand, we have maps that are generated on the fly, either using algorithms or artificial intelligence. In these cases, the limits are in the amount of data that current computers can handle, the most extreme case being that of Minecraft.
No Man's Sky
This exploration and survival game that gave so much talk in its day is based on a procedural generation system. Basically, what the algorithms of the video game do is select between a series of planets, ecosystems and animals and combine them to create a universe every time we open the game. Calculating the explorable surface of the universe would be absurd, but we can quantify the total number of planets that we could explore, which are neither more nor less than 8.446.744.073.709.551.616. However, the game was criticized for not having variety, which is quite paradoxical, although over the years, they polished the title until it became a fairly decent game. Or at least, close to what they had promised.
Star Citizen
Although the video game still in development, his promises point directly to placing this title on the podium. It's a space simulator with MMORPG mechanics in the first person. The promise is that the game will have a final extension of 2 million trillion cubic kilometers. Currently, the map measures 400 kilometers for each axis, so you have to settle for the second position.
Minecraft (3.600.000.000 km2)
The game with the largest land area you can currently play is Minecraft, and everything indicates that it will continue to be a leader for many more years. This video game has a series of algorithms capable of create terrain extension randomly. It's not infinite, but quantifying the surface becomes difficult without something to compare it to. As a picture is worth a thousand words, it is best that you see with your own eyes this short video in which the maximum extension of a Minecraft terrain with the size of the planet in which we live. Scary, right?
Other games with noteworthy maps
With increasingly extensive games, it is not surprising that titles that led the ranking years ago are now completely off the list. Have you been wanting more? Here are a few honorable mentions to games that don't have the largest map in the world, but surely you're curious to know the extent of their maps and a final video where they are compared in a very visual way.
- The Witcher 3: if we add all its DLCs, the game area stays in 125 square kilometers. The next development of CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077, has a similar extension of about 110 square kilometers. However, those of us who bought the game at the time hope and hope that at some point a DLC or some extra content will come out that will allow us to enjoy the experience again —yes, with fewer bugs, if possible.
- Red Dead Redemption: the first installment had an extension of 40 square kilometers. Red Dead Redemption 2 duplicated the map with some 75 square kilometers.
- Forza Horizon 4 and your drab map of England has an area of 72 square kilometers, about 12 more than its predecessor. And this, without counting the islands of the DLC. The most recent delivery Force Horizon 5, takes us to Mexican lands with a map of 107 square kilometers.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: It's the Link game with the biggest map we've seen to date. Its open world has an extension of 72 square kilometers.
- Skyrim: a few years ago he would have been high in the rankings, but now he can only settle for an honorable mention with hiss 37 square kilometers of map. Still, it's still a great game.
- Fallout 76: from a Bethesda success we go to the title that came out frog. West Virginia, with an extension of 62 kilometers squares did not finish convincing the survivors of the nuclear apocalypse. Its predecessor, Fallout 4, had a map with a terrain of 25 square kilometers. However, I think we all settle for the 22 square kilometers of Fallout: New Vegas, that marked the high point of the franchise.
- DayZ: survival has an impressive map of 225 square kilometers. More than enough to keep you away from the zombies.
- Assassin's creed: This game could make for an entire section, but we'll stick with only its largest maps. The record is taken Odyssey, with 256 square kilometers (of which half is water). follows him Black Flag to 235 square kilometers, also with a large ocean surface. Valhalla It has only 22 square kilometers of land, which combined with the sea, make a map of 120 square kilometers. Finally, Egypt has an extension of 80 square kilometers in Origins.
- Far Cry: This prolific saga already has a few titles behind it.. Far Cry 6 has a map of some 88 square kilometers, a size that easily exceeds 60 square kilometers of Far Cry 5. The fourth installment of the saga was about 46 square kilometers. However, Far Cry 3, which for many is the best title in this franchise, had a much smaller map, about 20 square kilometers if added together with the territory of the Rook Islands.
- Ghost Recon Wildlands: this installment, based on Bolivia, has an absolutely spectacular map of 440 square kilometers, with impressive terrain and plenty of roads to get lost in your military Jeep between missions.
- Ghost Recon Breakpoint: Your map has an extension of 2.022 square meters.
- Just Cause 4 could not stay out of this section with his gigantic map of 1.024 square kilometers.
- Elden Ring: Hidetaka Miyazaki's open-world game doesn't have a particularly huge map —if we compare it to other games on this list, of course. However, his 79 square kilometers They are bursting with content and life. The game allows hours and hours of exploration. These are some of the key reasons that have led to the fact that this title, which was apparently niche, has become one of FromSoftware's greatest successes.
- Xenoblade Chronicles: Xenoblade have always had especially large maps. The most extensive of all we have in the Xenoblade Chronicles that came out for Wii U. It has an extension of 399 square kilometers.
- Final Fantasy XV: Nor is this installment of one of the most successful franchises in video game history short. Final Fantasy XV has an open world of about 1.813 square kilometers.
Will GTA VI be the biggest Grand Theft Auto of all?
With the leak of the technical tests of GTA VI In mid-September 2022, a lot of people began to do the math on how big this new version of Vice City will be. Rockstar Games has not yet announced anything about this city, but those who have studied the leaked videos well suggest that the game could have a map twice as big as GTA V.
This would be achieved by completely reinterpreting the city of Vice City, redesigning its key points and adding some extra maps that we have not seen to date. However, we are still waiting for Rockstar Games to take control of the situation and comment on the basic aspects of this new video game that is one of the most anticipated in years.
Will Starfield break all records?
If they promised us something Starfield it would be a huge game. Bethesda's space RPG has been a big unknown for years, but it's finally coming out in 2023. During the game's presentation, Todd Howard revealed that Starfield will have a total of a thousand planets. Making calculations, it is possible that this video game breaks many schemes and is positioned at the top of the rankings.
During Bethesda and Microsoft's summer 2022 showcase, we got to see a gameplay similar to No Man's Sky. The demo ship was traversing a first system first, which had a total of 12 planets and several satellites, from what we could see. Shortly after, those responsible for the game indicated that there will be more than 100 different systems in the game. Taking this data as an average, it is easy to think that the game will have more than 1.000 planets to explore.
It was not fully clear if some of these planets and systems have been procedurally generated. Or if they are all open world spaces created by hand - we understand that the planets will have a small extension. But whatever they look like, Bethesda's proposal is also one of the most ambitious we've seen to date.