Open World Map Sizes Compared#
Last updated: August 12, 2026
Map area is often a key reference in purchase decisions. But “big” is not the same as “good” — density, content distribution, and traversal methods matter just as much. One thing must be stated upfront: the vast majority of open-world games have never published an official square-kilometer figure. This page only gives verifiable numbers; everything else is marked “not officially published,” with no estimates filling the gaps.
On sources: figures here fall into three categories — official, community grid-survey (Reddit/forums), and community estimate. Every row is labeled; consult them by credibility.
Ranked: Games with Sourced Figures#
| Rank | Name | Area | Source | Regions | Generation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minecraft | Nominal ~3.6 million km² | Official boundary mechanic conversion | Overworld (Nether and End are separate dimensions) | Procedural |
| 2 | The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall | 161,600 km² | Commonly cited community figure | All of High Rock, 15,000+ locations | Procedural (procedural towns) |
| 3 | Valheim | ~314 km² | Community-measured | Meadows, Black Forest, Mountains, Plains, Mistlands | Handmade + procedural |
| 4 | Grand Theft Auto V | ~81 km² | Community-measured | Los Santos, San Andreas desert, Paleto Forest | Handmade |
| 5 | Elden Ring | ~79 km² | Community-measured | Limgrave, Liurnia, Caelid, Altus Plateau, Mountaintops | Handmade (densest soulslike) |
| 6 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | ~75 km² | Community-measured | Valentine, Saint Denis, Annesburg, Blackwater | Handmade (ecological detail) |
| 7 | Cyberpunk 2077 | ~75–110 km² | Community-measured range | Night City + Badlands | Handmade (vertical density) |
| 8 | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | ~136 km² | Community-measured | Velen, Novigrad, Skellige, Toussaint (incl. DLC) | Handmade |
| 9 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | ~60+ km² (community est.) | Community estimate (non-official) | All of Hyrule | Handmade |
| 10 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | ~37 km² | Community-measured | Whiterun, Winterhold, Riften, Solstheim | Handmade |
Minecraft conversion note: In Java Edition, the world border defaults to ±29,999,984 blocks on both X and Z axes, for 59,999,968 blocks edge to edge. Using the official “1 block = 1 meter” convention, the nominal area is ~3.6 million km² (~3.6 × 10¹⁵ m²). This is a mechanic-ceiling conversion, not “playable content” area — the experienced density of a procedural world depends entirely on seed and exploration range.
Valheim note: The community calculates the circular world at a 10 km radius for ~314 km²; the actually explorable area is smaller than that nominal figure.
Games Without Official Area Figures#
For the following titles, no official square-kilometer figure exists. Circulating numbers are community estimates with inconsistent methodologies, which we do not annotate:
| Game | Official/Media Position | Regions |
|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Not published; surface comparable to Breath of the Wild, plus sky islands and the Depths | Hyrule + sky + depths |
| Forza Horizon 6 | Total area not published; official position: “Tokyo city area is a full 5× Forza Horizon 5’s Guanajuato, the series’ largest city area” | Japan (Tokyo city area) |
| Forza Horizon 5 | Not published | All of Mexico |
| Assassin’s Creed Odyssey | Not published | All of Greece (including extensive waters) |
| Ghost of Tsushima | Not published | All of Tsushima Island |
| Stardew Valley | Not published; a single town-scale map — the circulating “78 km²” comes from a baseless pixel conversion and is not credible | Pelican Town + farm + mines + Ginger Island |
| Horizon Forbidden West | Not published; The Independent reports a map span of roughly 5 miles, slightly larger than its predecessor, with priority on density over scale | The Forbidden West |
| Fallout 4 | Not published | The Commonwealth |
| Death Stranding 2: On the Beach | Not published | Eastern Continental US |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | Not published | Kuttenberg and surroundings |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 | Not published | The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone |
| Diablo IV | Not published | Five major regions |
| Sons of the Forest | Not published | The whole island |
| Hogwarts Legacy | Not published | Hogwarts Castle + surroundings |
| Stellar Blade | Not published | Xion 7 and the outlying areas |
Procedural Worlds: Area Is a Non-Question#
| Game | Scale Position | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Starfield | 1,000 procedurally generated planets | No single total km² exists — planets are algorithmically assembled, so “total area” is meaningless; explorable value depends on hand-designed city and dungeon density |
| Minecraft | Nominal ~3.6 million km² | See the conversion note above; the actual “effective area” is determined by player exploration range |
| Daggerfall | 161,600 km² | The procedural product of the Elder Scrolls II era — unrivaled in scale to this day, but with extremely low content density |
Mythbusters#
Myth 1: Bigger map, more content#
Starfield’s thousand-plus planets nominally dwarf any handmade map, yet “big but empty” is exactly what players complain about most; Elden Ring’s 79 km², meanwhile, is the consensus density benchmark, with nearly every inch rewarding exploration. What determines the experience is content density, not square kilometers.
Myth 2: A bigger map means more hours#
Minecraft’s nominal area is effectively infinite, but what truly retains players is the depth of its crafting systems; a town-scale map like Stardew Valley’s can absorb hundreds of hours. A gameplay loop’s pull matters far more than map area.
Myth 3: Circulating km² figures are official data#
The opposite is true — including this list, virtually every ranking is community-measured. Open-world blockbusters with published exact areas can be counted on one hand. When you see a headline like “Game X’s map is 100+ km²,” find the source before drawing conclusions.
Source Methodology#
| Data Dimension | Source | Credibility |
|---|---|---|
| Official data | Developer/publisher announcements | High |
| Community grid survey | Reddit/forum grid-method measurements | Medium-high |
| Community estimates | Radius/proportion estimates (e.g., Valheim’s 10 km radius) | Medium |
| Official mechanic conversion | Boundary-mechanic conversion (e.g., Minecraft’s border) | High (nominal value) |
This page previously carried unverifiable data — “traversal time comparisons,” “content hours per km²,” “top speed” — which has been removed. Those figures have no reliable source and fluctuate wildly with player routes and vehicle choices.
Citing This Page#
If you quote figures from this list, please include the source category alongside the number — “community-measured” and “officially published” carry very different weight. Community figures can shift slightly with game patches and improved measurement methods; this page re-verifies and updates whenever a credible new source appears.
FAQ#
Why do so few games publish map sizes?#
Developers rarely treat map area as a headline metric — official communication tends to answer with “exploration experience” rather than square kilometers. That is why this page only lists verifiable numbers and marks the rest as “not officially published.”
Which km² figure should I trust?#
In descending order of credibility: official announcements, community grid surveys, then community estimates. When quoting, carry the source type along with the number — Minecraft’s ~3.6 million km² is a nominal mechanic conversion and says nothing about playable density.
Does a bigger map mean a better game?#
Not necessarily. Elden Ring’s 79 km² is the consensus density benchmark, while Starfield’s thousand-plus planets draw the “big but empty” complaint. Content density decides the experience, not area.
Related Guides#
Full Chinese-language guides for many of these games — including Elden Ring, Skyrim, GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, Valheim, Minecraft, Ghost of Tsushima, and Stellar Blade — are available on NTGame.