There is no defensible single winner for “biggest” or “best” open-world RPG from the available evidence. Map estimates use inconsistent boundaries, while quest totals often mix main, side, radiant, and unmarked activities. The more useful choice is to match each game’s world structure and narrative style to the experience you want.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the clearest fit if you want a large role-playing journey with substantial story expansions: its publisher describes Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige, and its Complete Edition includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Cyberpunk 2077 emphasizes a futuristic city, mercenary contracts, and flexible character builds. Skyrim offers exceptionally broad discovery, although its often-repeated quest and location totals come from a secondary reference and do not identify all quests as side quests. Elden Ring is the strongest match for exploratory freedom and detouring when a boss blocks progress, but the sources do not establish a comparable postgame inventory.
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Why map size alone is a poor comparison
Open-world “size” is not measured consistently across these games. One estimate may count only traversable ground; another may include water, underground areas, separate islands, interiors, or regions reached through loading transitions. Vertical design can also make a compact footprint feel much larger than a flat area. Because the available third-party map estimates do not document a common boundary or method, they cannot support a reliable square-mile or square-kilometre ranking.
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#1 Best Overall
- 192-page full color hardcover packed with tools and guidance to help gamemasters run immersive campaigns.
- Includes expert advice for new and experienced GMs tailored to the Warhammer The Old World roleplaying system.
- Features campaign-building tools like Grim Portents, Contacts, and Dark Threads to create dynamic narratives.
- Expanded setting details for Talagaad with guidance for adapting adventures to other regions and stories.
- Contains bestiary, magic items, downtime events, and corruption paths to enrich gameplay and surprise players.
- Are activities clustered around settlements and routes, or scattered across long stretches of travel?
- Does the game provide distinct regions, biomes, or urban districts rather than one visually repetitive field?
- Can you reach optional content through several routes, or must you follow one prescribed path?
- Does exploration reveal authored stories and characters, or mainly repeatable encounters and collectibles?
The answers differ by game. A world can be physically large but tightly curated around roads, cities, and quest chains; another can be less densely populated yet reward players who investigate landmarks and unusual paths.
At-a-glance comparison
| Game | World structure | Side-content evidence | Postgame and expansion evidence | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Open-world journey through the Northern Kingdoms, including Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige. No common area measurement is established. | Bandai Namco advertises “over 100 hours of core and side-quest gameplay.” This is a publisher marketing claim, not a guaranteed completion time or a side-quest-only total. | Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine add story content. The Complete Edition combines the base game and expansions. | Players who prioritise authored narrative arcs and a substantial expansion campaign. |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | An open-world role-playing game set in a futuristic city. | GamesRadar’s editorial description highlights mercenary contracts and freedom in character builds; it does not provide a comparable quest count. | The reviewed material does not establish a complete inventory of post-ending activities or expansion inclusion for every edition. | Players who want a concentrated city setting and build experimentation. |
| Skyrim | A broad fantasy world with marked and unmarked locations. The commonly cited figures come from a secondary reference. | The reference lists 244 quests and more than 300 marked points of interest, but it does not establish that all quests are side quests. | The reviewed material does not provide a consistent postgame-content count across editions. | Players who enjoy unscripted wandering, discovery, and a large pool of activities. |
| Elden Ring | GamesRadar characterises the world as vast and stresses that you can explore elsewhere when a boss is difficult. | The source offers qualitative framing rather than a quest total or a side-story inventory. | The reviewed material does not establish a comparable post-ending mode or activity count. | Players who value exploration freedom and alternative routes through difficulty. |
The Witcher 3: the strongest evidence for story-rich add-on content
World and travel structure
The official description presents the game as an open-world role-playing adventure across the Northern Kingdoms. CD PROJEKT RED’s press material specifically names Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige, giving the world a clear regional structure rather than treating it as one undifferentiated map. Those names are useful when judging density: you are moving among distinct areas with their own settlements and travel patterns, not simply comparing one unqualified land-area number.
How to interpret the 100-hour claim
Bandai Namco advertises over 100 hours of core and side-quest gameplay. The surfaced page does not state a year, and the wording combines core and side quests. It therefore should not be read as a guaranteed completion time, a promise that every player will spend 100 hours, or a measurement of side quests alone. It does, however, indicate that the publisher positions the base experience as unusually substantial.
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Expansions and editions
The official game page identifies Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine as expansions that add story content. If you want the fullest supported narrative package, look for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition; the official description says this edition combines the game and its expansions. The same page discusses a Remastered offering and platform distinctions, so confirm the exact edition and platform before buying. A listing that says only “The Witcher 3” may not include the same content.
Rank #2
- Explore the grim and thrilling World of Legend with this 192-page full-color hardback RPG book for Warhammer: the Old World, ideal for players and collectors alike.
- Create iconic characters using six Origins and 30 Careers, from cunning Rat Catchers to noble Knight-Exiles, with full rules for advancement, Skills, Talents, and Lores.
- Fast-paced, easy-to-learn d10 dice pool system delivers high-lethality gameplay true to the Old World, offering combat, adventure, and peril for every session.
- Customize your hero with trappings, Assets, Endeavours, magical spells, and improvised spellcasting, plus divine Favours, prayers, and miracles from ten gods.
- Perfect for players seeking epic adventures, survival, and glory; this book contains everything needed to explore the Old World, complementing the Gamemaster’s Guide.
An announced but unresolved addition
CD PROJEKT RED’s press centre announces Songs of the Past as an expansion introducing a new region, quests, and characters. The captured announcement does not settle its release or availability status. Treat it as an announced project, not as playable or purchasable content, until the current platform listing confirms otherwise.
Cyberpunk 2077: a city-focused RPG with build freedom
What the sources establish
CD PROJEKT RED classifies Cyberpunk 2077 as an open-world role-playing game set in a futuristic city. That setting changes how its scale feels: urban districts, vertical routes, and dense infrastructure can create a busy experience without requiring a giant wilderness footprint.
GamesRadar describes mercenary contracts and freedom in character builds. These are editorial observations, not a verified count of contracts or side quests. They support a practical expectation: the game’s optional content is tied to taking jobs and shaping your character, rather than being judged by one published quest-total number.
Who should choose it
Choose this structure if you prefer a concentrated metropolitan setting and want your build choices to influence how you approach jobs. It is a weaker evidence-based recommendation if your main requirement is a documented, expansion-inclusive side-story total, because the material reviewed here does not provide one.
Rank #3
- ENTER THE WORLD OF SKYRIM: Experience the legendary open-world RPG as a tabletop adventure, exploring Tamriel through branching quests, iconic factions, and rich Elder Scrolls lore.
- COOPERATIVE OR SOLO PLAY: Designed for 1–4 players, allowing you to adventure solo or team up to face dragons, uncover conspiracies, and shape the fate of Skyrim together.
- OPEN-ENDED QUEST SYSTEM: Choose how you approach each mission—diplomacy, stealth, or combat—as your decisions permanently impact the story and the world around you.
- DEEP CHARACTER PROGRESSION: Build unique heroes with evolving skills, gear, and abilities inspired by the video game’s iconic progression systems.
- HIGH REPLAYABILITY: Modular scenarios, multiple quest paths, and varied character builds ensure every campaign feels fresh and every journey through Skyrim is different.
Check the edition before assuming postgame scope
The available sources do not inventory every post-ending activity or establish identical expansion inclusion across editions and platforms. Before purchase, read the current platform description for the exact edition, included story content, and whether the listing refers to the base game or a bundle.
Skyrim: the broadest discovery model, with important counting caveats
Quest and location figures
A secondary Wikipedia reference lists 244 quests and more than 300 marked points of interest, in addition to unmarked locations. The reference does not state a year on the surfaced page, and it does not establish that all 244 quests are side quests. Some may be main, faction, or other categories. Use these figures as an indication of breadth, not as a clean side-quest ranking.
Why it can feel full without a formal total
Marked locations give you visible destinations, while unmarked places reward players who investigate the landscape beyond icons. That combination supports a wandering-first style: you can follow a quest, divert to a point of interest, or continue exploring without needing a single linear route. Because the available evidence does not classify every location or quest by narrative depth, it cannot prove that Skyrim has more engaging side histories than the other games.
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Best fit
Skyrim is the sensible choice when discovery itself is a major goal and you are comfortable with uneven activity types. If you want every optional mission to be a tightly authored, self-contained story, a raw quest total will not answer that question; inspect current edition information and independent, game-specific quest guides before deciding.
Rank #4
- The outer worlds is a new single-player first-person sci-fi rpg from obsidian entertainment and private division
- In the outer worlds, you awake from hibernation on a colonist ship that was lost in transit to halcyon, the furthest colony from earth located at the edge of the galaxy, only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy it. As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter various factions, all-vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable
Elden Ring: exploration as a response to difficulty
World design
GamesRadar’s 2026 roundup describes Elden Ring’s world as vast and emphasises that players can explore elsewhere when a boss is difficult. That is a meaningful distinction from a map-size claim: the value is in having alternative directions and activities when progress stalls, not in a validated area measurement.
Side stories versus activity count
The available source does not provide a quest total or inventory of side stories. You should therefore judge Elden Ring by its exploration model—finding another route, region, or challenge—rather than assuming that “vast” means it has the most narrative side quests.
Best fit
Pick it if you want the world to offer alternatives when a fight exceeds your current ability or preparation. Pick another game if your deciding metric is a documented number of character-driven side quests or a clearly itemised postgame campaign; those details are not established in the material available here.
Side-quest depth: how to evaluate “engaging” without a misleading ranking
Quest counts and playtime claims answer different questions. A count tells you how many activities a source categorises; a marketing duration combines core and optional play; an editorial description conveys a reviewer’s impression. None alone measures whether a side story will hold your attention.
Best Value
- Welcome to the new world: taking on the role of a Hunter, players are tasked with going on a research expedition to a newly discovered continent known only as “new world”.
- Living and breathing ecosystem: utilize the surrounding environment and wildlife to your advantage;Subgenre:Action role-playing game (RPG)
- Online drop-in multiplayer: when the battle is too daunting to take on single-handedly, hail up to three other hunters to assist during quests by sending up a sos flare to a worldwide server.
- Hunt to craft new Gear: defeat monsters and collect loot from fallen foes to craft equipment and weapons styled after the monsters that have been slain.
- SEAMLESS gameplay: players and monsters can move from One map area to another freely and without loading screens whilst gameplay also dynamically transitions between night and day.
Use this checklist while comparing listings and guides
- Identify the activity type. Is it a named character quest, a faction chain, a contract, a location event, or a repeatable task?
- Check whether the number includes the main story. Skyrim’s 244-quest figure is not established as side quests only, and The Witcher 3’s 100-plus-hour claim combines core and side gameplay.
- Look for authored continuity. Multi-stage arcs, recurring characters, and consequences are more relevant to “side history” than a map marker by itself.
- Separate variety from volume. Different activity types can make a world feel lively even when no official total exists.
- Confirm the edition. Expansions can add major narrative arcs and change the amount of content available from the start.
On the evidence available here, The Witcher 3 has the clearest documented case for additional story campaigns, Cyberpunk 2077 has the clearest city-and-build identity, Skyrim has the broadest cited activity breadth with classification caveats, and Elden Ring has the clearest emphasis on optional exploration when difficulty blocks you.
Postgame content: distinguish four different things
“Postgame” is often used for several unrelated features. Before comparing games, define which one you mean:
- After-story free roam: returning to the world after the final main quest.
- Paid or bundled expansions: new story campaigns that may be played during or after the base narrative.
- Repeatable endgame activities: contracts, challenges, or encounters intended to continue indefinitely.
- New-game modes: replay systems that carry progress or add difficulty.
The reviewed sources do not provide a complete, consistent inventory of these four categories for all four games. The Witcher 3 is the exception in one important respect: its official page clearly identifies two story expansions, and its Complete Edition bundles them. For Cyberpunk 2077, Skyrim, and Elden Ring, verify the current edition’s included content and platform description rather than inferring postgame scope from map size or quest totals.
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A practical decision guide
Choose The Witcher 3 if…
- You want a regional open world with a publisher-stated 100-plus hours of combined core and side-quest gameplay.
- Story expansions are central to your purchase, and you can buy the Complete Edition that includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
- You prefer a documented narrative package over an unverified map-area ranking.
Choose Cyberpunk 2077 if…
- A futuristic city is more appealing than a conventional fantasy wilderness.
- You want mercenary-contract content and freedom to shape a character build.
- You are willing to check the exact platform listing for included expansions and post-ending content.
Choose Skyrim if…
- You enjoy wandering between marked and unmarked locations.
- A large pool of activities matters more than a precisely classified side-quest total.
- You accept that the often-cited 244 quests and 300-plus marked locations come from a secondary reference and are not a clean measure of narrative quality.
Choose Elden Ring if…
- You want to leave a difficult boss and discover another route or challenge.
- Exploration freedom matters more than a published quest count.
- You are comfortable evaluating its postgame and edition details separately, because the available sources do not provide a complete inventory.
What not to use as a buying shortcut
- Unverified map rankings: inconsistent boundaries make “largest” claims unreliable.
- One publisher time figure: The Witcher 3’s 100-plus-hour statement combines core and side content and is not a guarantee.
- Quest totals without categories: Skyrim’s cited number does not prove a side-quest count.
- “Vast” as a synonym for deep: Elden Ring’s qualitative description supports freedom of exploration, not a narrative inventory.
- Assuming every edition is equivalent: expansions, remastered versions, and platform packages can differ.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
