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Open world games offer the most holistic gaming experience provided the game has enough to offer within.
Won’t go into that right now, but whenever you get a large enough open world to play in, there’s simply a lot more to do in it.
Open-world games are generally big, not just in the map sizes, but also when it comes to GBs of storage.
Modern games rely heavily on multiplayer and online gameplay, paving the way for developers to add on extended game bundles to make sure a gaming title continues generating revenue and clocking users well beyond its release date.
This is one of the many reasons open-world games, often featuring sandbox gameplay mechanics, are virtually the crème de la crème of gaming.
Let’s just go straight into it and check out the best and the biggest open-world games in 2021!
Best Open World Games: Biggest Video Game Size Comparison
23. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Map Area – 1.5 square miles
- Release Date – 23rd October 2015
- Developer – Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is often rated as the last true-blue AC game, the final installment with the signature combat, excellent storylines, sandbox stealth adaptations, and a custom-styled universe loved by all. Since then, AC has shifted to Witcher-like run-loot-kill-run gameplay replacing the stealth-adventure gameplay (although we did enjoy Valhalla to the fullest!)
This is why Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the best way to start this list of the biggest open-world games. It’s set eloquently in Victorian-era England replete with pre-industrial dirt and chaos. A 2015 release, it runs on the same AnvilNext 2.0 engine running the new Valhalla. If you love Assassins Creed, you must have played Syndicate. If not, play it even today.
22. Marvel’s Spiderman PS4
Map Area – 4.2 square miles
- Release Date – 7th September 2018
- Developer – Insomniac Games
Is this the best Spiderman game yet? Some might say it’s Miles Morales. But this game is just about at par with in-game mechanics and graphics renditions are excellent. Worth mentioning, Spiderman is easily among the most enjoyable games to play on PS4.
Marvel has done its best to bring cinematics into gaming. Barring Miles Morales, this is easily the best web-swinging action you will get out of Spiderman. True that the combat sequences can be a bit long drawn without much room to get creative.
Yet it’s the open-world gameplay that does the trick. As for the Big Apple, few games have even managed to come close to what this game has. A must-play and the biggest map ever on a Spiderman game.
21. Kingdom Come Deliverance
Map Area – 5.7 square miles
- Release Date – 13th February 2018
- Developer – Warhorse Studios
Pre-industrial era content is gold, especially when you add a few dragons and any other supernatural stuff you can think of. But Kingdom Come Deliverance keeps it simple for a change, and that is what makes it one of the best games to play.
What separates this from the likes of Skyrim is the not-so-gamey map size. This is not the biggest of game maps around, but the Late Medieval Bohemia is perhaps the most perfectly scaled map you will find in the gaming world. No over enlarged cities or extensive loading times between map zones.
Kingdom Come Deliverance delivers smooth gameplay across a brilliantly detailed and intuitive gaming engine.
t’s almost as good as RDR2 sometimes – wear ragged clothes to a tavern and get beat up but look like a noble and get the best stuff available. This is a hidden gem and definitely worth playing.
20. Immortals Fenyx Rising
Map Area – 10.4 square miles
- Release Date – 3rd December 2020
- Developer – Ubisoft
Where Zelda meets Greek mythology minus the online gameplay, Immortal Fenyx Rising is a fun pop game spanning about 30 hours but worth every second. This is a fresh and audacious attempt at revitalizing the open-world genre and it works.
It’s the blanket of impossibility that makes this a rare open-world adventure. The robust game mechanics will intimidate you.
There are mountains you can not climb and random battles you should avoid. And within these impossibilities lies the freedom to approach the game open-ended.
Immortals Fenyx Rising will enamor you perfectly but it does lose its plot when you’re too godly empowered to bother. Other than that, this is the best fun Greek map with enough allusions to the bygone era to keep you playing.
19. Ghost of Tsushima
Map Area – 10.8 square miles
- Release Date – 17th July 2020
- Developer – Sucker Punch Productions
If you haven’t played Ghost of Tsushima, you have missed out on perhaps one of the best action-adventure games ever.
It rated highly and unanimously, an absolute echelon of modern gaming mechanics, resplendent graphics, a proper narrative, and a powerful package of everything else.
Ghost of Tsushima puts you smack in the middle of a tastefully detailed feudal Japan, on the island of Tsushima during the Mongol invasion.
Enjoy samurai sword-wielding at its absolute best, better than any other game yet, and some excellent memorable battle scenes. And there’s the grayscale Kurosawa mode as well, a homage to the legendary director.
The exquisite combat mechanics and hand-crafted scenes would have made Akiro proud. What a game!
18. GTA San Andreas
Map Area – 12.8 square miles
- Release Date – 26th October 2004
- Developer – Rockstar Games
The one video game that changed everything. GTA San Andreas brought about a revolution in PC gaming, merging the narratives of a good hero and a pop villain. Everyone was Carl Johnson and Carl Johnson was everyone!
Forget RPGs with other-worldly creatures a bit hard to believe for the common folk. GTA finally completed the leap from consoles to PCs full-time and everyone flocked in.
San Andreas was ‘the’ LA suburb any gamer would want to grow up in. This was one of the biggest open-world games on PS3 back then.
Back in 2004, San Andreas was the must-play game for almost anyone with a PC and it did not demand much either.
Level up CJ, hone better skills to successfully attempt more difficult tasks, and kind of keep playing forever on an expansive enough map. If you’re a 90’s kid, quite sure you’ve played San Andreas already!
17. Red Dead Redemption
Map Area – 15.5 square miles
- Release Date – 18th May 2010
- Developer – Rockstar Games
What happens when you put RPG mechanics into the Wild West? An excellent foundation for one of the best games ever. Red Dead Redemption is outclassed by its update but Rockstar Games knew they hit a jackpot the first time out.
Just like GTA, there’s so much to do in RDR that you will end up hitting the 40-hour mark to finish it off and then re-play.
RDR redefined the concept of open-world games and sandbox gaming mechanics. Simply, there’s just so much to do on it that you can literally play it n times without switching over mid-way.
Few games have managed to integrate sandbox mechanics into the gaming environment like RDR. You can simply hop on your horse and roam around.
There’s always something happening just around the corner in a painstakingly detailed map that begs you to take a ride.
16. Fallout 76
Map Area – 15.8 square miles
- Release Date – 23rd October 2018
- Developer – Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 76 is not the best Fallout game around and it’s better off to say this out loud (and hope Bethesda is listening.) It’s too big for its own good, buggy, tedious, and sometimes not worth the 30-hour game span.
All that’s good about Fallout 76 is the map, not the best-looking one around, but simply big. Perhaps a bit too big for proper online gameplay, which is buggy, to say the least.
But this is one of the biggest open-world games around. And that’s just about it.
15. Far Cry 5
Map Area – 23.1 square miles
- Release Date – 27th March 2018
- Developer – Ubisoft
Unlike in Assassins Creed, Ubisoft has remained true to the base gaming mantra of the Far Cry series. The 5th installment brings a larger, exquisitely detailed map that syncs beautifully with the gaming mechanics.
Hope County Montana is one of the most popular combat maps around and a lot of the credit goes to how the game uses the map. Other than the main storyline, which is well-planned out, it’s the open-world traveling that will keep you hooked to Far Cry 5.
Where RDR demands you to interact with the gaming mechanics first, Far Cry 5 will pounce on you instead. The central game story is not that difficult, but we dare you to spend a few hours alive in the wilderness. That’s Far Cry 5 for you!
14. PUBG (Miramar)
Map Area – 24.7 square miles
Developer – PUBG Corporation
Miramar is the largest map by landmass on PUBG. Based on a desert theme, multiple large towns favor urban combat skills, some smaller towns, 4 island complexes including 1 major island facility.
Overall, it favors snipers thanks to the large map size. Perfectly suited for BR, Miramar is among the more popular maps for pro players. Camping is a common strategy, but late-game blitzkriegs will demand long-range accuracy and perhaps a team 3 or 4.
13. Breath of the Wild
Map Area – 27.8 square miles
- Release Date – 3rd March 2017
- Developer – Nintendo
If you haven’t played the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild no matter where your allegiances are or even if you’re not much for RPG, play it.
This is a true masterpiece of digital art and one of the most expertly-crafted video games ever made.
It’s fun, beautiful, enigmatic, but the magic is not just in the digital environment created. Breath of the Wild is an experience, a journey through a gaming world charmingly designed and intuitively synced with the game itself.
Few RPGs have even come close to the player-environment interaction like this has. The game beckons (instead of forcing) you to explore the huge world. The learning curve is exponentially and almost inwardly rewarding.
The freedom offered in the gameplay, the open-ended missions and secrets along the way, and encapsulating graphics that will make you pause and take notice – Breath of the Wild is a must-play video game without any doubt.
Also Read: 16 Best Zelda Games, Ranked
There’s only one downside – Breath of the Wild is only available on Switch though.
We so wanted the new Age of Calamity (with quite a few features from Breath of the Wild) to at least come on PlayStation or Xbox, not to be.
Still, if you haven’t played this, you must.
12. Red Dead Redemption 2
Map Area – 29 square miles
- Release Date – 26th October 2018
- Developer – Rockstar Games
There are many reasons why RDR2 was Steam’s game of the year in 2020. Rockstar took the best bits from the sleeper hit 1st installment and added a million elements to create one of the most addictively brilliant games ever.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is as intelligent and intuitive a game you can play. Rockstar has successfully taken the best bits of sandbox mayhem and integrated it perfectly into the Wild West with enough additional details to keep you hooked for more than the 40-hour storyline.
It’s not just the details but the efficacy of them as well. Hunt a wild boar and watch the body start decaying over time.
Enter a pub with your weapon unholstered and get ready for a serious duel (not the case if you go in without guns blazing.) RDR2 is perhaps what non-Japanese RPGs ought to be and who better than Rockstar to get it done.
As for the map, it’s vast and full of things to do. RDR2 has taken the cue from Skyrim to create a perfect alternative reality of the wild wild west as if it’s still there. Mount your horse and take a stroll into the sunset – RDR2 is naively addictive and probably the best at it.
If you haven’t played Red Dead Redemption, you must. This is one of the best and biggest open-world games around.
13. Assassins Creed: Origins
Map Area – 30.8 square miles
- Release Date – 27th October 2017
- Developer – Ubisoft
This is the last Assassins Creed with the simplistic stealth-adventure gameplay that made us fall in love with Ezio.
Origins gave us a glimpse into a meticulously beautiful Egypt very few games have even dared to venture, and it was beautiful in every second.
The franchise did go downhill since the excellent Black Flag and it is to Ubisoft’s credit that they sat back and redesigned their next step forward.
Origins were more than a reprieve for the fans, and it doubled back with modified but almost the same gameplay characteristic to AC. Origins are the last game in the series to remember what it was and it’s utterly brilliant.
12. Assassins Creed: Valhalla
- Release Date – 10th November 2020
- Developer – Ubisoft
Map Area – 46.3 square miles
Clearly one of the best games in 2022, as far as popularity is concerned, Valhalla did get mixed reviews from puritans and critics alike. But it is a brilliantly enjoyable game with enough to keep you hooked.
Following up from the pop and excellent TV series Vikings (Ragnar!!!), Assassins Creed put it all in Norway, better combat mechanics, a beautiful arsenal of weapons including Thor’s Hammer, and a big enough world to keep you playing beyond the storyline.
11. GTA V
Map Area – 50 square miles
- Release Date – 17th September 2013
- Developer – Rockstar
GTA V is a larger San Andreas with more missions and characters to it. But unlike most other game installments, Rockstar took the risk of keeping things just as the franchise always was, only building on better graphics and gameplay.
And it paid off. The San Andreas DNA is straight-up recognizable, a perfect scenario in tune with the game where fans only wanted more of the same.
The icing on the cake is the GTA V online world, free to play now, and still thoroughly enjoyable. Team up with your buddies online or make new ones and complete jobs together.
Some jobs are difficult so you will need that extra bit of help, or just drive around and fight gang wars with other groups.
It’s immensely popular and just why GTA 6 is delayed.
Also, check out the list of the fastest cars in GTA5.
10. Witcher 3
Map Area – 52 square miles
- Release Date – 18th May 2015
- Developer – CD Projekt
What is an open-world game if there’s no fun in taking the less-beaten path? That’s just what Witcher 3 is, where the vast and explicitly detailed open-world perhaps beats the main storyline in fun.
True that the main story is all about going from point A to point B and beating the next boss. Stray from it and there’s a panoramic world full of discoveries and items. But all these are just the tip of the iceberg.
What makes this one of the best games with the biggest maps around is its deep-role playing gaming mechanics.
Your Geralt will rarely end up as someone else’s Geralt after about half the game. An expansive combat arsenal including a bevy of spells and magic, Witcher 3 demands foresight and studying.
Otherwise, you will get killed every 10 minutes into the game – not nice.
Overall, this is still one of the best games in 2021 although it’s a little too adult for everybody with lots of blood and nudity (and dragons!) Smell GoT yet?
9. Cyberpunk 2077
Map Area – 87 square miles
- Release Date – 10th December 2020
- Developer – CD Projekt
Ever heard of a game that’s brilliant to look at but not so to play? That’s Cyberpunk 2077 for you in a nutshell.
It’s almost the best-looking game yet, placed in a not too distant future. Take GTA and imagine it with flying cars and some new-age weaponry – Cyberpunk 2077 is fun.
But why did not check for bugs? The best bugs on Cyberpunk are hilarious and just as irksome for gamers who don’t want to leave the future retro-punk world for any other.
The map’s big, there’s lots to do, and even more to gawk at but a huge what if they released a few months later. Either way, worth playing, but there are better games around.
8. Assassins Creed: Black Flag
Map Area – 91 square miles
- Release Date – 29th October 2013
- Developer – Ubisoft
Black Flag reimagines assassins with pirates in the lawless world of Nassau. And it works out almost perfectly. Almost because you’re not really an assassin anymore.
That’s perhaps the only turn-off to this game though as otherwise, it’s full of action, comic, and multiple sandbox combat scenarios. Black Flag still hosts the assassins vs. templars lore and adds to it British and Spanish law enforcers.
So, you’re just running, hiding, killing, looting, and repeating.
It’s fun, perhaps the most fun from any Assassins Creed game since. But it lacks the central reason, the urge to side with the assassins in the first place, just what made this franchise a fan’s favorite.
Has Ubisoft been taken over by the Templars? Perhaps so. Still a great game though. And it’s big, really big!
7. Assassins Creed: Odyssey
Map Area – 99 square miles
- Release Date – 2nd October 2018
- Developer – Ubisoft
This is the biggest AC game yet and it’s better than Valhalla unless it’s about style and playing as a Nordic. Odyssey is audaciously big, brilliantly designed, and perfectly executed. It has a bit of stealth although you do end up fighting hand-to-hand a lot more.
You will never see a game so perfectly bringing ancient Greece to life, across its archipelagos and large cities, like Odyssey.
It is epic, both in proportions and in gameplay. And that’s where it flaws – a bit too big and overstretched.
That said though, stealth kills are not a piece of cake and are very much up for taking! Definitely one of the best AC installments around!
6. Arma 3 (Altis)
Map Area – 105 square miles
- Release Date – 12th September 2013
- Developer – Bohemia Interactive
If there was ever a game that wins on just sheer proportions, it should be Arma 3.
Altis is the centerpiece of Amra 3, an island with ruins, urban and rural settings, open areas, almost every single type of tactical embellishment an FPS gamer would want.
Back in 2013, this was the game to play.
The beauty lies in co-op, a decade better than almost any other FPS game around still. Arma 3 is only for the serious-minded, interested in the battle of it rather than the fun.
And Altis is where you’ll end up spending most of your hours. A meticulously detailed simulation is obviously a must-play.
5. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
Map Area – 170 square miles
- Release Date – 7th March 2017
- Developer – Ubisoft
If you haven’t played Rainbow Six Siege yet, you should. Or we recommend you go ahead with this.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is one of the best battle games around. Tactical, open-ended, sandbox gaming – Ghost Recon Wildlands is one of the largest open-world games and a good one at it too.
From the get-go, you are free to roam on a map with almost every terrain you can imagine a tactical shooter to have.
Ubisoft has brought Bolivia to life, with its jungles, mountains, deserts, rivers, and whatnot. The fun is in co-op tactics demanding serious mastery and teamwork.
There’s a lot of weapons and vehicles as well. In short, this is one of the few games we truly recommend!
4. Just Cause 4
Map Area – 395 square miles
- Release Date – 3rd December 2018
- Developer – Avalanche Studios Group
If there was ever a game that took past success a bit too seriously, it’s this. Just Cause 4 is just like the 3rd installment barring only a few tweaks here and there.
So, if you’ve played JC 3, we recommend waiting for Just Cause 5. If you haven’t though, this 4th installment is good, most importantly big!
This is the largest video game map in the shooting simulation/arcade genre. And that’s about the best accolades you can give to it.
There’s everything, from AKs to fighter jets, and it’s all bang-bang-boom. If that’s your definition of gaming fun then have at it!
3. Crew 2
Map Area – 2,200 square miles
- Release Date – 31st May 2018
- Developer – Ivory Tower, Ubisoft
Move over tactical shooters, the biggest open-world games are racing games and they are larger, much larger! Crew 2 manages to expand open-world racing to the whole of the USA (excepting Hawaii and the likes) and it does so without peers.
From powerboats to dune buggies, racing cars are just not enough nowadays to keep you hooked although we still love zipping around the Nürburgring in GTR Racing.
Crew 2 is exciting to the point that the adrenaline rush becomes commonplace. But till it lasts, you’ll be hooked to it. And the map’s big enough to for at least 40 hours of premier game time!
2. Fuel
Map Area – 5,560 square miles
- Release Date – 2nd June 2009
- Developer – Asobo Studio
The one video game that opened the idea of large map sizes is the way to the future. Fuel is uninhibitedly big – this was one of the largest video game maps around back when it was released, and it still is.
Fuel did manage to keep the game somewhat non-repetitive throughout with a huge number of races and events to play in-game, offline, and online.
The map is surprisingly open-ended and there’re plenty of shortcuts throughout to keep you tuning in for the next one.
But the gaming engine, or the game AI, is the biggest letdown; obvious considering this is a pre-2010 release. Still, if you want to take the seat of a monster truck that can hit 120 mph, this is the game to do it!
1. Elder Scrolls 2 Daggerfall
Map Area – 62,395 square miles
- Release Date – 1996
- Developer – Bethesda
Is Elder Scrolls the best game ever? Unless you’re completely against RPGs, it should be right up there in the top 10.
TES is a magnum opus under constant development and Daggerfall is the perfect answer to whether old-school RPG mechanics can still hold their own against new-age BR.
Daggerfall will take months to unravel even for the most seasoned RPG players. Other than a gargantuan map (that essentially works as a parallel realm of existence), Daggerfall is the foundation of the cult classic Skyrim (with acceptable graphics).
A revolutionary character and gaming engine, this is the biggest map in a game that can be explored terrestrially.
The game rewards those who go beyond the main storyline with some excellent and complex side missions.
We recommend Daggerfall wholeheartedly!
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
Map Area – 19,69,50,710 square miles
Release Date – 17th August 2020
Developer – Asobo Studio
Conclusion
There you have it – these are the biggest open-world games in 2021. Map sizes will keep on increasing over the year. We are eagerly waiting for Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia that may add to this list. Oh, and if you’re wondering why we did not add the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 to this video game size comparison list, well that’s cause you don’t really enjoy the whole Earth as a gaming map if you’re flying over it! You do get some interesting locations in FS 2020 though.
Game On!
