When a Game World Gets Ridiculously Huge
Video game worlds have gotten so large that simply exploring them can become an adventure of its own. Some games take this idea even further by creating settings that aren't just larger than a city, country, or even a continent, but contain entire planets, galaxies, or fictional universes. In a few cases, the game world is technically larger than Earth itself, although the exact comparison depends on whether you're measuring the physical map, the explorable area, or the fictional setting as a whole.
1. No Man's Sky
As mentioned before, not only do you have one huge planet to explore in No Man's Sky, you have billions of star systems to explore and countless planets that are all procedurally generated as well. Even if you spent your entire life exploring, you'd only experience an incredibly tiny portion of the game's overall universe. The sheer number of possible locations makes the game world difficult to comprehend.
2. Elite Dangerous
Elite Dangerous uses a 1:1 scale representation of the Milky Way galaxy. The game includes around 400 billion star systems, many of which contain planets, moons, and other celestial objects. Earth is a joke when your map is this big.
3. Star Citizen
Star Citizen takes place in a fictional galaxy that consists of many different star systems and planets. As developers continue to work on this game, more areas will become playable. From cities to full-on planets, this game world will only get bigger and bigger.
4. Microsoft Flight Simulator
As you can imagine, Microsoft Flight Simulator takes place on the world of Earth. Using actual data from our world, the developers were able to map out all of Earth's cities, bodies of water, and landscapes. While the world may not be bigger than Earth, it is undoubtedly bigger than any other game out there.
5. Daggerfall
The second installment of The Elder Scrolls series has one of the biggest game worlds you can play in today. Set in the land of Tamriel, you are free to explore what was once said to be 63,000 square miles of land. You can spend a surprising amount of time traveling without seeing everything the game generates.
6. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Unity
Daggerfall Unity is another game that is similar to the original release of Daggerfall. This game gives you a huge world to explore with thousands of towns and dungeons scattered throughout the map. It isn't literally larger than Earth, but compared with the explorable maps of most RPGs, its scale is still ridiculous.
7. Minecraft
Minecraft can span across millions of blocks wide. When you calculate how big the Minecraft world can get, it's almost comical that it can outcompete the size of the Earth. This game can also spawn multiple biomes and underground terrain that expands the playability even further.
8. Kerbal Space Program
When you play Kerbal Space Program, you are able to discover a fictional planet system. You are able to create rockets and explore planets and moons. While these planets are not as big as the Earth, you still have a whole solar system to play around in.
9. Spore
Much like our previous entries, this game will take you out of a single world and let you explore a massive galaxy. There are tons of planets to discover once you progress to the space portion of the game. The scale changes dramatically as the game progresses, turning what began as a small creature-focused experience into something much larger.
10. Starfield
With over 1,000 planets to discover, Starfield has no problem competing with Earth when it comes to game size. Not every planet is fully handcrafted, but the game gives you an enormous collection of worlds to visit, explore, and land on. The result is a setting that operates on a scale far beyond a conventional single-planet RPG.
11. EVE Online
EVE Online has one of the largest game worlds you'll find on the market. There are countless stars to discover in this universe and many people who share this world. You can travel between these stars and explore what each system has to offer.
12. Elite: Dangerous Horizons
Horizons allows you to explore planets as well in the world of Elite Dangerous. Not only do you have the opportunity to fly through space, you now have the chance to explore these worlds as well. You can actually descend onto the surfaces of many worlds, giving the already massive setting another layer of explorable space.
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13. Starbound
Just like we saw in our previous examples, Starbound gives you a world with many different planets to discover. You can travel from world to world and explore them all. There is so much room in this game, it could probably outlast many games we know.
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14. Astroneer
Astroneer also gives you the chance to explore many different worlds. There are several planets you can discover and explore on top of the moon. Since this game takes place on multiple worlds, you can easily exceed the size of Earth.
15. Empyrion - Galactic Survival
Once again, another game that lets you travel from world to world. With so many different areas you can explore, this game world can rival that of our own. Build bases and rockets to help you travel around this vast universe.
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16. Dual Universe
Dual Universe gave us a world that we can explore in a sci-fi environment. Not only can we explore this world, we can build in it as well. This makes it a game world that not only exceeds the size of Earth, but it's built by its players.
17. X4: Foundations
X4 allows you to travel around many different star systems that are connected to each other. There are tons of things to explore on this game world, from cities to spaceships. The game's scale comes from the combination of its many systems and the activity taking place throughout them.
18. Universe Sandbox
Although this may not be considered a typical adventure game, it can outcompete many others. You have the ability to move and look at celestial objects all over the universe. Since the experience is based around astronomical simulation, the scale can extend far beyond anything resembling an ordinary video game world.
19. No Man's Sky Beyond the Starting Planet
Similar to how Minecraft works, you don't have to stay on one world when playing No Man's Sky. Your home planet is just one of many you can travel to in this game. Once you start jumping between systems, the amount of territory available becomes effectively incomprehensible compared with Earth.
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20. Elite Dangerous' Full Galactic Map
The full Elite Dangerous galaxy is ultimately the clearest example of a game setting that dwarfs Earth in scale. Its map represents a huge portion of the Milky Way, with hundreds of billions of star systems spread across an astronomical distance. You aren't simply exploring a larger version of a normal game map; you're operating inside a digital representation of an entire galaxy.
