The five largest maps in one published ranking are The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Fuel, The Crew 2, Just Cause 4 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Its figures are useful as reported estimates, not a definitive all-time leaderboard: game worlds differ in what they count as playable area, and some figures come from third-party measurement rather than developers.
What “biggest video game map” means
There is no single, like-for-like measure of a game map’s size. A fixed, designed world is not directly comparable with a procedurally generated world’s playable limit or a simulated planet. Rankings can also count water, inaccessible terrain, expansions or separate regions differently. Developers rarely publish exact square-kilometre figures, and estimates based on travel time depend on route, direction, movement speed and obstacles.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Open World: Video Games and Contemporary Art | $53.94 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Ghost of Tsushima - PlayStation 4 | $22.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Mad Max - PlayStation Hits (PS4) | $18.74 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Just Cause 4 - PlayStation 4 | $11.80 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Elden Ring - PlayStation 4 | $33.32 | Buy on Amazon |
The table below reproduces the five entries in Meristation’s 2018 ranking. Treat the numbers as that publication’s estimates, not as publisher-certified measurements or a settled ranking of every kind of game world.
| Rank in Meristation’s 2018 list | Game | Reported area | How to read the figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall | 161,600 km² | Meristation’s 2018 estimate; a publisher-certified measurement was not verified. |
| 2 | Fuel | 14,400 km² | Meristation’s 2018 estimate. |
| 3 | The Crew 2 | 5,700 km² | Meristation’s 2018 estimate. |
| 4 | Just Cause 4 | 1,024 km² | Meristation’s 2018 estimate; this is not the separate estimate for Just Cause 3. |
| 5 | Assassin’s Creed Odyssey | 256 km² | Meristation’s 2018 rounded estimate; Guinness later listed a third-party measurement of 256.38 km². |
Meristation’s 2018 ranking does not establish a common measurement method or resolve every question about traversable land, water and inaccessible areas. The apparent precision of a square-kilometre figure should not be mistaken for a uniform standard across all five games.
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How the five reported estimates compare
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall — 161,600 km²
Meristation’s 2018 ranking places Daggerfall first, at 161,600 km². That is the ranking’s reported figure; it should not be presented as a measurement officially confirmed by the game’s publisher. The source does not establish a comparable, independently verified playable-area method for this entry.
Fuel — 14,400 km²
Meristation gives Fuel an area of 14,400 km² in its 2018 list. Keep the year and attribution attached to the number: it is a published estimate, not a current measurement standard applied consistently to every open world.
Rank #2
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The Crew 2 — 5,700 km²
The same ranking reports 5,700 km² for The Crew 2. It is another estimate from Meristation’s 2018 comparison, rather than a figure established here through a publisher’s technical specification.
Just Cause 4 — 1,024 km²
Meristation’s reported area for Just Cause 4 is 1,024 km². Do not swap in the often-cited figure for Just Cause 3: Twinfinite separately estimates that game at about 1,000 km², or 400 square miles, and cautions that much of the reported area is sea. That estimate is for a different title and is not a basis for changing the Just Cause 4 entry.
Rank #3
- Be Mad Max - Become the iconic post-apocalyptic warrior, crafting and upgrading Max's equipment and weapons to survive by combining melee combat, gunplay and tactical techniques. Gamers must form alliances as they work towards the goal of building their "Magnum opus."
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Assassin’s Creed Odyssey — 256 km² or 256.38 km²
Meristation rounds its 2018 figure for Odyssey to 256 km². Guinness World Records lists 256.38 km², attributing the calculation to Dimitris Galatas, who used ImageJ, in-game distance measurements and maps. Guinness says Ubisoft did not publish an official size, so the more precise number is still a third-party measurement, not an official Ubisoft specification. See the Guinness record entry.
Why other “biggest map” lists can look different
Changing the definition changes the candidates. Guinness records Minecraft as holding the largest land-based videogame area, as of 26 June 2013, at 4,096,000,000 km² of playable procedural area. The entry lists a much larger theoretical world-size limit separately; that theoretical maximum is not the playable area. A procedural world limit is not directly comparable with a fixed map’s reported footprint.
Rank #4
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There are also custom maps built from real-world geographic data. An International Cartographic Association proceedings paper from 2018 describes a 220,000 km² Great Britain map made for Minecraft using Ordnance Survey data. That is a cartographic project, not the base game’s generated playable-world limit. These examples show why “ever made” needs a clear boundary: generated worlds and custom geographic projects belong to different comparisons than the five authored-game estimates above.
Other rankings make different choices even among authored games. Twinfinite’s estimate for Just Cause 3, for example, is about 1,000 km² (400 square miles), with much of the area described as sea. A ranking that counts full map footprint may therefore produce a different order from one that focuses on traversable land. Differences in measurement method, water and inaccessible zones can matter as much as rounding.
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- ELDEN RING is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki—creator of the influential DARK SOULS video game series; and George R.R. Martin—author of The New York Times best-selling fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire
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What to check before comparing map sizes
- World type: Is it a fixed, authored map, a procedural world, or a simulation?
- Area counted: Does the figure describe total map footprint or genuinely traversable terrain?
- Water: Does the area include seas and other non-land spaces?
- Scope: Are inaccessible areas, expansions or separate maps included?
- Measurement: Is the number from a developer, a record body, or a third party—and what method was used?
- Date and version: When was the figure published, and which version or edition does it describe?
These distinctions matter because exact dimensions are uncommon and travel-time methods are especially sensitive to the route and movement conditions. GamePro likewise notes that developers and publishers almost never state exact practical square-kilometre dimensions; its discussion of open-world size also explains why walking-time comparisons can mislead. GamePro’s explanation is a useful reminder that a precise-looking number does not guarantee a comparable measurement.
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