Open world games have redefined what gaming can be — not just a series of levels and cutscenes, but entire living worlds to explore at your own pace. From the sun-bleached deserts of Red Dead Redemption 2’s American frontier to the alien landscapes of Elden Ring’s Lands Between, the best open world games are among the most memorable experiences in the medium.
This guide covers the 30 best open world games across all platforms and categories — best overall, best on PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch, best survival open world, best open world RPGs, and recent releases worth playing in 2025 and 2026.
Best Open World Games: Quick Rankings
| # | Game | Platform | Genre | Best For |
| 1 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | PS4/5, Xbox, PC | Action/Adventure | Best open world ever made |
| 2 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Switch | Action/Adventure | Best Switch open world; exploration |
| 3 | Elden Ring | PS4/5, Xbox, PC | Action RPG | Best challenging open world RPG |
| 4 | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | All | RPG | Best story-driven open world RPG |
| 5 | Grand Theft Auto V | All | Action | Best open world sandbox; multiplayer |
| 6 | Skyrim | All | RPG | Most replayable open world RPG |
| 7 | Ghost of Tsushima | PS4/PS5 | Action/Adventure | Best PS5 open world atmosphere |
| 8 | Horizon Forbidden West | PS4/PS5 | Action RPG | Best PS5 visual open world |
| 9 | Baldur’s Gate 3 | PC, PS5, Xbox | RPG | Best narrative RPG; deep systems |
| 10 | Cyberpunk 2077 (2.0) | PS5, Xbox, PC | Action RPG | Best futuristic open world |
Best Open World Games of All Time
1. Red Dead Redemption 2 — The Greatest Open World Game Ever Made
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the most accomplished open world game ever created. Rockstar Games spent eight years building a recreation of the American frontier in 1899 that remains unmatched in density, detail, and atmospheric authenticity. Every building in every town has an interior. Animals have realistic behavioral patterns — predators hunt prey, animals drink at water sources at dawn. Weather systems affect wildlife, NPC behavior, and Arthur Morgan’s physical state.
The story — a meditation on loyalty, mortality, and the closing of the American frontier — is one of the finest narratives in gaming, elevated by Arthur Morgan’s performance and the game’s willingness to let quiet moments breathe without constant action. The online mode (Red Dead Online) has an active player base with its own economy and activities.
- Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series, PC
- Story length: 40-50 hours main story; 100+ hours for full completion
- Metacritic: 97/100 (PC) — one of the highest-rated games ever
- Best for: Players who want the most immersive, atmospheric open world experience
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — Best Exploration Game
Breath of the Wild redefined open world game design when it released in 2017 and its influence is still felt in virtually every open world game released since. The core philosophy — give the player a vast world and let them go anywhere from the beginning, with minimal hand-holding — was a radical departure from contemporary design. The physics and chemistry systems allow genuine creative problem-solving: almost every environmental puzzle has multiple valid solutions.
The game respects player intelligence and rewards curiosity. Every visible mountain can be climbed, every shrine can be approached in multiple ways, and the world is dense with secrets that feel genuinely discovered rather than guided. Its successor, Tears of the Kingdom, expanded the same engine with underground and sky layers — effectively tripling the explorable space.
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (exclusive)
- Also: Tears of the Kingdom (2023) expands the same world significantly
- Best for: Exploration-focused players; Switch owners; anyone interested in creative problem-solving
3. Elden Ring — Best Challenging Open World RPG
Elden Ring brought FromSoftware’s demanding, atmospheric design philosophy to an open world for the first time. The Lands Between is a haunting, beautiful, and genuinely threatening world that rewards exploration with lore, secrets, and increasingly powerful enemies. Unlike most open world games that scale enemies to match the player, Elden Ring’s world has fixed difficulty zones — going the wrong direction will get you killed quickly, which makes exploration feel genuinely dangerous.
The open world design solves a core problem with Soulslike games: if you’re stuck on a boss, you can explore elsewhere, level up, and return stronger. The game has over 100 bosses, a massive optional underground area (Siofra River, Nokron), and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which adds another substantial open region.
- Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series, PC
- Also: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC (2024) is essential and substantially large
- Best for: Players who want challenge; atmospheric exploration; methodical combat
4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Best Story Open World RPG
The Witcher 3 remains the benchmark for narrative quality in open world RPGs — its side quests are better written than the main stories of many games, and the world of the Northern Kingdoms feels lived-in rather than constructed for the player’s benefit. CD Projekt Red’s writing team created hundreds of meaningful side stories, each with its own arc and consequences.
Geralt of Rivia’s search for his adopted daughter Ciri is emotionally compelling, and the game’s willingness to let players make genuinely difficult moral choices without obvious right answers reflects its source material (Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel series) faithfully. The Blood and Wine DLC adds the entire duchy of Toussaint — a large standalone area that is arguably better than the base game.
- Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch (reduced resolution)
- Essential DLC: Blood and Wine (20+ hours; adds full duchy); Hearts of Stone
- Best for: Story-focused players; RPG fans; narrative game enthusiasts
5. Grand Theft Auto V — Best Open World Sandbox
GTA V’s Los Santos is the most densely populated and mechanically rich city sandbox in gaming — a fictional Los Angeles with distinct neighborhoods, a working economy, three playable protagonists with different skill sets, and a multiplayer mode (GTA Online) that has sustained an active player base for over a decade. The base game story has been called the best in the GTA series by many critics; the online component has generated billions in revenue through ongoing content updates.
GTA VI is expected in 2025-2026 (as of this writing) and will set a new standard, but GTA V remains the definitive open world sandbox until that release.
- Platforms: PS3/PS4/PS5, Xbox, PC
- GTA Online: Continuously updated with new missions, vehicles, heists
- Best for: Sandbox play; multiplayer heists; creative chaos
6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Skyrim is the most replayed open world RPG ever made — not because it’s the best-designed, but because its combination of accessible combat, enormous quest variety, world exploration, and mod support (on PC) creates a game that players return to repeatedly. The game has been released on essentially every platform including Amazon Alexa (the voice-assistant version was a genuine product).
On PC with mods, Skyrim becomes effectively a different game — graphics mods make it visually comparable to modern titles, and gameplay overhaul mods like Requiem or Wildlander completely redesign the survival and combat systems.
- Platforms: All — including Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox, PC
- Best version: PC with mods (nexusmods.com has thousands of mods)
- Best for: RPG exploration; modding; replayability
Best Open World Games PS5
7. Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima is the most atmospheric open world game on PlayStation — a recreation of feudal Japan’s Tsushima island during the 1274 Mongol invasion that prioritizes visual beauty, natural navigation (wind guides you to objectives instead of a minimap), and a deeply satisfying samurai combat system. The Legends multiplayer mode added co-op story missions and endgame raid content.
- Platform: PS4/PS5 (PS5 version adds 60fps and DualSense haptics)
- Best for: PS5 players who want atmosphere and combat over systems complexity
8. Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is the most visually impressive open world game on PS5 — a post-apocalyptic world where robotic dinosaurs roam the ruins of the American West, rendered in extraordinary detail. The sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn expands the world westward with new biomes, new machines, and significantly improved combat variety. The Burning Shores PS5-exclusive DLC adds a Los Angeles flooded by volcanic activity — one of the most memorable video game environments of 2023.
- Platform: PS4/PS5 (PS5 version is definitive)
- Best for: PS5 players; visual showcase; action combat fans
9. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 takes the already excellent open world traversal of its predecessors and adds a second playable character (Miles Morales), the symbiote suit mechanics, and a significantly expanded New York City. Web-swinging and gliding across Manhattan remains the most satisfying movement system in any open world game. It’s a PS5 exclusive and one of the strongest arguments for the platform.
- Platform: PS5 exclusive
- Best for: PS5 owners; action fans; superhero fantasy
Best Open World Games PC
10. Cyberpunk 2077 (Version 2.0 + Phantom Liberty)
Cyberpunk 2077 released in a disastrous state in 2020 but the 2.0 patch (2023) and Phantom Liberty DLC fundamentally remade it into one of the best open world RPGs available. Night City — a neon-drenched, hyper-capitalist megalopolis — is arguably the most detailed urban open world ever built, with a density of detail and world-building that rewards exploration. The revamped skill tree, police AI, and vehicle combat brought the game up to the standard of CD Projekt Red’s previous work.
- Platforms: PC (best version), PS5, Xbox Series
- Note: PC version with a high-end GPU shows the game at its best; last-gen versions (PS4/Xbox One) are significantly inferior
- Best for: Cyberpunk/sci-fi fans; narrative RPG players; PC showcase
11. Baldur’s Gate 3
Baldur’s Gate 3 is not a traditional open world game but its three-act world — a large interconnected region of the Forgotten Realms — offers enormous freedom of exploration and player agency. Every quest has multiple solutions, NPCs remember your actions, and the game’s reactivity to player choices is the most sophisticated of any RPG released to date. It won Game of the Year 2023 essentially universally.
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series
- Best for: CRPG fans; players who want maximum narrative agency
Best Open World Games Xbox
12. Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 is the best open world racing/driving game ever made — a recreation of Mexico including active volcanoes, coastal roads, rainforests, and desert salt flats, populated with over 500 licensed vehicles. The Horizon Festival format turns the entire map into a playground where any road can become a race, and the game’s seasonal event structure provides new content every week. It’s also on Game Pass.
- Platforms: Xbox One/Series, PC (Game Pass)
- Best for: Xbox owners; racing game fans; casual open world exploration
13. Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite’s open world Zeta Halo is the first open world in the mainline Halo series and offers the most freedom of movement and approach in the franchise — grappleshot traversal, enemy outposts to liberate, and a Banished-occupied ring to explore. The multiplayer remains one of the best arena shooter experiences on console.
- Platform: Xbox One/Series, PC (Game Pass)
- Best for: Xbox/Game Pass subscribers; FPS fans
Best Open World Switch Games
14. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Tears of the Kingdom is the best Switch open world game and arguably the best game on the platform period. Expanding Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule with sky islands, an enormous underground Depths layer, and the Ultrahand/Fuse/Ascend abilities that allow players to build vehicles and structures, it offers more creative freedom than any open world game before it. The building system — used to solve puzzles, create aircraft, and construct weapons — has generated years of community creativity.
- Platform: Nintendo Switch exclusive
- Best for: Switch owners; creative exploration; the most content-dense Switch game
Best Open World Survival Games
15. Subnautica
Subnautica is the best open world survival game ever made — an underwater survival experience on an alien ocean planet where the ocean floor is full of increasingly alien and beautiful (and terrifying) biomes. The game achieves something rare in survival games: genuine discovery. The deeper you go, the more unknown the environment becomes, and the game withholds the map deliberately to preserve the sense of exploration.
- Platforms: PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox
- Best for: Survival game fans; players who want genuine exploration and discovery
16. Valheim
Valheim is the best co-op open world survival game — a procedurally generated Viking purgatory with biome progression, base building, sailing, and increasingly challenging boss encounters. Designed for 1-10 players cooperatively, it has one of the most satisfying base-building and resource-gathering loops of any survival game. The Ashlands and Mistlands updates expanded the late-game content significantly.
- Platform: PC (Steam)
- Best for: Co-op survival groups; Viking aesthetics; base building
17. The Long Dark
The Long Dark is the most realistic open world survival game — a first-person survival experience set in the Canadian wilderness following a geomagnetic disaster. No zombies, no enemies except wolves and bears; the threats are cold, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. The Wintermute story mode and the sandbox Survival mode are both excellent.
- Platform: PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox
- Best for: Hardcore survival fans; realistic wilderness survival
Best Open World RPG Games
18. Dark Souls III
Dark Souls III’s world — while not open in the traditional sense — is an interconnected map that loops back on itself in ways that reward exploration and reveal the world’s architecture over time. Its ending chapters (Archdragon Peak, The Ringed City DLC) rank among the finest FromSoftware environments ever created.
19. Dragon’s Dogma 2
Dragon’s Dogma 2 (2024) is one of the best open world RPGs of recent years — a fantasy world with a genuine sense of scale and danger, where large monsters are actual threats rather than scripted encounters, and traversal feels physical and weighted. The Pawn system (AI companions shared between players’ worlds) is one of the most interesting social mechanics in RPG design.
- Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series, PC
- Best for: Action RPG fans; players who want genuine world scale
20. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the best open world RPG on Nintendo Switch outside of Zelda — a massive JRPG with interconnected open zones, a deep combat system, and one of the most emotionally ambitious stories in the genre. The world scale is genuinely impressive on Switch hardware.
- Platform: Nintendo Switch exclusive
Best Open World Multiplayer Games
21. GTA Online
GTA Online continues to be the most played open world multiplayer game, with regular updates adding heists, businesses, vehicles, and story missions over a decade. The Criminal Enterprises and Drug Wars updates (2022-2023) significantly reworked the economy and mid-tier progression.
22. No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky had a disastrous launch in 2016 but Hello Games’ sustained commitment to free updates has transformed it into one of the best multiplayer space exploration games available. An essentially infinite procedurally generated universe with base building, multiplayer expeditions, space combat, and biological horror updates makes it a genuinely unique open world experience.
- Platforms: All — PS4/PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch
23. Minecraft
Minecraft is still the best-selling game of all time and the most widely played open world game across all demographics. The survival, creative, and adventure modes, combined with an enormous modding ecosystem and multiplayer server communities, make it simultaneously a game for children and a platform for adult players building elaborate worlds.
Best New Open World Games (2024-2025)
24. Dragon’s Dogma 2 (2024)
Already noted above — Capcom’s most ambitious RPG and one of the best open world games of 2024.
25. Black Myth: Wukong (2024)
Black Myth: Wukong is a semi-open world action RPG based on Journey to the West, developed by a Chinese studio (Game Science). It became one of the most played games on Steam simultaneously with its August 2024 launch and is visually among the most impressive games released on any platform. While less open-world than the entries above, the interconnected world design and exploration rewards place it in the category.
- Platforms: PS5, PC
- Best for: Action fans; visually impressive gaming; Chinese mythology
Best Open World Games by Platform
| Platform | Top 5 Best Open World Games |
| PS5 | Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, Spider-Man 2, Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5) |
| Xbox | Red Dead Redemption 2, Forza Horizon 5, Elden Ring, Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077 |
| PC | Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077 (2.0), Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3 |
| Switch | Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Skyrim, No Man’s Sky |
| PS4 | Red Dead Redemption 2, The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn |
| Survival | Subnautica, Valheim, The Long Dark, Green Hell, Raft |
| Multiplayer | GTA Online, No Man’s Sky, Minecraft, Valheim, Elden Ring (co-op) |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best open world game?
Red Dead Redemption 2 is widely considered the best open world game ever made — its world density, atmospheric detail, story quality, and NPC behavioral systems remain unmatched. Elden Ring is the best open world RPG in terms of design quality and challenge. Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom are the best exploration-focused open world games. The ‘best’ depends on your preference: story (RDR2), challenge (Elden Ring), creativity (Tears of the Kingdom), or sandbox (GTA V).
What is the best open world game on PS5?
Ghost of Tsushima is the most impressive PS5-specific open world experience — stunning visuals, excellent combat, and an atmosphere unique to the platform. Horizon Forbidden West is the visual showcase. Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 (2.0 patch) are the best open world RPGs on PS5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the best exclusive. For overall quality, Elden Ring is the top-rated PS5 open world game.
What is the best open world game on Xbox?
Forza Horizon 5 is the best Xbox-exclusive open world game — the best open world racing game ever made, included with Game Pass. Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, and The Witcher 3 are the best overall open world games available on Xbox. Halo Infinite offers the first open world in the mainline Halo series.
What are the best open world survival games?
Subnautica is the best solo open world survival game — genuinely unique in its underwater alien setting. Valheim is the best co-op open world survival game for groups. The Long Dark is the most realistic. Green Hell and Raft are strong alternatives. For survival with combat, Rust (PC) and Ark: Survival Evolved offer more PvP-focused options.
Final Thoughts
The best open world games share a common quality beyond their scale: they make exploration feel meaningful. Red Dead Redemption 2 rewards you for stopping to watch a sunset. Tears of the Kingdom rewards you for approaching a puzzle creatively. Elden Ring rewards persistence in the face of a world designed to kill you. The open world format has become the dominant form of big-budget gaming precisely because it gives players genuine agency — and the games on this list represent the best the format has to offer.
