21. Ghost of Tsushima – 11.02 mile²
Ghost of Tsushima is among the most gorgeous open world games we’ve ever played. Its wonderfully stylized aesthetic bursts with color, from golden forests to icy mountain tops. The sheer beauty of this swansong PS4 exclusive makes its substantial size all the more impressive.
As we’ve detailed in our dedicated article, thanks to Tsushima’s two islands roughly forming two rectangles, measuring it wasn’t especially difficult.
We simply measured the length and distance of both islands at their widest points to turn them into rectangles that roughly represent their total area. Then it is just a case of multiplying the two values to get an area squared calculation.
20. Skyrim Special Edition – 14.79 mile²
The Elder Scrolls has long been famed for its massive open worlds. As far back as Morrowind III back in 2002, critics were lauding the franchise for its unprecedented open world scope, and Skyrim continued to set the benchmark when it first launched 10 years later.
Fast forward to the present day, however, and Skyrim’s once considered huge open-world actually clocks in a fairly modest 14.79 mile² or 38.31 km2.
Figures for Skyrim’s total size vary across the internet, with most consensus hovering around the 39km mark. An individual from the Skyrim modding community shed light on how the measurement is calculated:
Bethesda games typically use a 64 “units” to 1 yard (or 70 units to 1 meter) scale. Exterior cell sizes have also remained 4096 units across since Morrowind, making each cell 64 yards long and wide.
Skyrim’s open world map is 119 cells across and 94 high, as verified by the game’s Creation Kit. Multiplying those numbers by 64 yards gives 7616 x 6016 yards or 45,817,856 square yards / 38.31 km2 / 14.79 mile².
It’ll be interesting to see what Bethesda does with the open world in the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI.
