The gaming industry is one of the biggest industries out there and is expanding day by day. It is fair to say that the competition among developers is pretty tight. Every company wants their game to be bigger and better. One of the factors, most games that boost their world-building, is the size of their open-world.
Over the years, developers of different games have been releasing new versions with bigger world-maps. The aim is to make the biggest game map by either breaking the previous record or aiming for a much higher number. While adding square miles to the games, the other things like content to be spread over the open-world needs to be developed as well.
Having green plains isn’t exactly the idea of fun the players have in mind, so with a big space to play with, comes better accessories, vehicles, weapons, storylines, and efficient traversing.
1. Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto is a game that even non-players are familiar with. GTA Vice City was the first game I played as a kid. GTA V, which first released in 2013 remains one of the most successful games ever released.
It also features a world map of 31 square miles which is the largest world map ever included in a Grand Theft Auto title. Despite the map being huge, it isn’t difficult to traverse considering there is a wide array of vehicles with which to get around in Los Santos.
2. Assassin’s Creed: Origins
Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ world game map is close enough to GTA V’s map in size, it spans around 32.8 square miles. Assassin’s Creed: Origins, when released in 2017, was the best by the franchise with it featuring significant RPG elements, even though the map is technically only one-third of the size of the map which was featured in the predecessor of this game, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag isn’t usually counted because it is majorly made up of ocean so the content more or less is better in Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
3. Final Fantasy XI
The Final Fantasy games have quickly become one of my favorites. You will see both XI and XV in my list because even though Final Fantasy XV is the biggest, Final Fantasy XI still spans over 70 square miles, which is more than the double of the two games I have talked about already.
4. Xenoblade Chronicles X
The world map in Xenoblade Chronicles X spans around 154 square miles. It is the only open-world games released for the Wii U, it came out in 2015. The world-map in Xenoblade Chronicles X covers the uncharted planet Mira, spanning over all five continents of the world. The planet Mira is inhabited by alien species, and being settled by humans fleeing the destruction of Earth.
5. Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV is truly in the top tier with a whopping world map of around 700 square miles. The world can be traversed through point-to-point fast traveling by foot or by car. The game was launched in 2016 and has since then been in every list of top open-worlds available in the gaming world.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of games that have even bigger open-worlds than the ones I have talked about. These are some of my favorites so I needed to give them special mentions. For me, the more area I have to explore, the better. I like taking my time to notice details and figure out what made the developers put it there. To me, gaming is more than a hobby. I like analyzing every aspect of it. What are some of your favorite open-world maps?
