Best Open-World Games, Ranked#

Last updated: August 9, 2026

Methodology#

Our open-world ranking scores every game across five core dimensions, 10 points each, for a maximum of 50.

Final score = the sum of the five dimensions. The ranking also weighs historical influence, player reception, and long-term replayability.

On map areas: the figures below use the same sources as our Open World Map Size Comparison page. Community-measured numbers are labeled “community-measured”; where no official figure exists, we write “not officially published” rather than inventing estimates.

The Full Ranking#

1. Elden Ring#

2. Red Dead Redemption 2#

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild#

4. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom#

5. Grand Theft Auto V#

6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt#

7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim#

8. Cyberpunk 2077#

9. Horizon Forbidden West#

10. Ghost of Tsushima#

11. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II#

12. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla#

13. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach#

14. Fallout 4#

15. Starfield#

16. Avowed#

Quick Reference#

Reading the Ranking#

The Top Three

The comparison between Elden Ring and Red Dead Redemption 2 is essentially a clash of two design philosophies: Elden Ring buys curiosity with “negative space” — no quest markers, the joy of discovery left entirely to the player; RDR2 makes “living in the West” total through density and detail. Breath of the Wild takes third on the strength of its physics-and-chemistry interaction freedom: its map isn’t large, but its “every inch is climbable” design enables vertical exploration. The three games represent three open-world philosophies — choose based on whether you want to “explore,” “live,” or “experiment.”

On Map Size

The area figures are reference points only: Elden Ring’s content density per km² far exceeds most works at the same scale, while nominally larger worlds (fully procedurally generated ones, for instance) tend toward “big but empty.” Very few open-world games have ever published an exact official area — every “community-measured” figure above comes from player grid surveys and carries error; even marquee titles like BotW, TotK, and 2077 have never received an authoritative square-kilometer figure. For the sources behind each game’s numbers, see our Open World Map Size Comparison.

Industry Trends

The last two years have split open-world design into two routes: one, exemplified by Death Stranding 2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, continues the “hand-crafted, linearized big world”; the other, exemplified by Starfield, trades procedural generation for scale ceilings — but player feedback shows density and hand-design remain the decisive factors in reception. GTA 6, releasing November 19, 2026 (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S at launch; PC date unannounced), will be the next benchmark against which the industry is measured.

Related Rankings#

Best RPGs of All Time · Best Soulslike Games · Open World Map Size Comparison