When it comes to open-world games today, it seems that with every release developers seem to be working hard to create the biggest and most expansive sandboxes possible. There are massive sandbox titles games like Just Cause3, which is around 390 square miles. However, there are also games that offer huge overworlds that are filled with empty landmass like Final Fantasy XV and Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Interestingly, some of the most densely packed open-world games seem more full and alive with content than many games that have miles upon miles of copy and pasted scenery. Due to the limitations of the time, the earliest open-world games were far smaller than they are now.
In order to make up for the technical constraints, many older games had to get creative and add as much content as possible. Let’s take a look at 10 of the smallest open-world games released.
10 Grand Theft Auto III – 3 Square Miles
Released in 2001 on the PlayStation 2, Grand Theft Auto III was the first time the series gave players a fully 3D world to explore. Developers DMA took their experience with open-world games from their more obscure Body Harvest on the Nintendo 64 and created something special in GTA3.
The game defined a sub-genre of its own and became the benchmark for 3D open-world action-adventure games. Despite being just 3 square miles, GTA3 felt more alive than of its top-down 2D predecessors, and brought to life classic car chase movies for the gaming medium.
9 Yakuza – 2 Square Miles
The first Yakuza game was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It was the first game in the long-running crime saga with Kazama Kiryu as the protagonist. The game has since been remade from the ground up with Yakuza: Kiwami, but it retains the game’s map size.
Yakuza’s map is called Kamurocho, which is a fictionalized version of Tokyo’s Kabukicho district in Japan. In terms of size, it is far smaller than western games like Grand Theft Auto, but it more than makes up for this in density. The district feels alive, authentic, and it is packed with things to do and discover.
8 Assassin’s Creed III – 1.5 Square Miles
Assassin’s Creed III was first released in 2012 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii U. Taking inspiration from Red Dead Redemption and the movie The Last of the Mohicans, Assassin’s Creed III lets players explore Colonial America during the American Revolution.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of empty space to traverse on horseback, but the towns and emerging cities like New York and Boston are an absolute joy to explore. Furthermore, Assassin’s Creed III was the first game to introduce naval battles.
7 Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate 1.4 Square Miles
The ninth mainline entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate was released in 2015 on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. It was set in Victorian London and featured two protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye, allowing players to freely switch between the two.
In terms of landmass, Syndicate is far smaller than Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but the sheer amount of verticality (climbing Big Ben) and content made it feel much larger. Syndicate’s Victorian setting really captures the world at the end of the Industrial Revolution, and is one of the most mesmerizing and atmospheric in gaming.
6 Batman: Arkham Knight 1.3 Square Miles
The final entry in the Arkham saga, Batman: Arkham Knight, was released in 2015 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC. It is the largest and most open game in the series and allowed players to traverse the city in the Batmobile.
While being forced to use the suped-up car too often got stale very fast, the city itself was incredibly detailed and atmospheric. Arkham Knight is at its best when Batman is scaling the rooftops and stalking criminals in the dark, rain-drenched city.
5 Assassin’s Creed Unity – 1 Square Mile
Released in 2014 on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Assassin’s Creed: Unity was the first game in the series to arrive on the current-gen systems. Unfortunately, it became the subject of much criticism after launching unfinished and with a plethora of bugs.
In fairness to Ubisoft, they worked hard to patch the bugs and rectify other issues with the game. Unity’s open world was an incredibly ambitious, a stunning representation of the Paris during the French Revolution. Visually, it is arguably better looking than its successor, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, with some of the best lighting and shadow effects that were seen in this generation.
4 Shenmue – 1 Square Mile
Shenmue was first released for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. It was the most expensive game ever developed at the time, and was meant to be a system seller for the Dreamcast. Despite getting a sequel two years later, it was never the hit that Sega hoped it would be.
Nevertheless, Shenmue still had a dedicated fanbase and a third sequel was released in 2019 with the help of crowdfunding. It was one of the first games to offer players an open-world experience with a night and day cycle. Just like the Yakuza series that succeeded it, Shenmue didn’t have a massive sandbox to explore, but it was densely packed with activities and quests.
3 The Legend Of Zelda – 0.8 Square Miles
Released in 1986, the first game in The Legend of Zelda series landed on the = Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was a massive success and was the beginning of one of the most genre-defining action-adventure games of all time.
It offered players an explorable world filled with dungeons in order to move the story forward. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild also adopted the same gameplay mechanic, and it became one of the best games of the decade. At 0.8 square miles, Zelda set the record for the largest game world.
2 Hydlide – 0.4 Square Miles
Released in Japan during 1984 for the NEC PC-6001 and NEC PC-8801, Hydlide is an open-world action RPG developed by T&E Soft. It made it to North American territories in 1989 when it was released for the NES.
Hydlide was one of the first action RPGs and its open, .4 square mile world was record-breaking at the time. The game’s openness inspired Hideo Kojima’s work on Metal Gear Solid V, as he wanted to recreate the same feeling he had when he first played Hydlide.
1 Courageous Perseus – 0.1 Miles
Courageous Perseus was released in 1984 for Japanese PC formats before Hydlide. While it didn’t become as popular or as mainstream as Hydlide, it was considered to be the most ambitious of the two.
After finding their way on a raft, players get to explore an island full of mythological beasts and monsters. It is a true sandbox open-world game that doesn’t hold the player's hand, leaving them to discover their own paths. By today’s standards, the game’s map is tiny at .1 miles, but at the time it felt huge with lots to discover and fight.