In the digital realms where pixels paint landscapes and code sculpts mountains, virtual worlds continue to expand beyond imagination. The neon-drenched corridors of Night City once stood as a testament to gaming ambition, a sprawling urban jungle where dreams and nightmares intertwine beneath the glow of corporate advertisements. Yet, as 2025 unfolds, these streets—once considered vast—have been dwarfed by even more ambitious digital frontiers.

The Measurement of Vastness

How does one measure the immensity of digital worlds? Like ancient cartographers charting unknown seas, modern players have developed their own metrics—not in miles or kilometers, but in footsteps and minutes. The journey across Night City and its surrounding Badlands demands nearly three hours of continuous walking, a virtual pilgrimage through concrete and dust. This method, while imperfect due to varying walking speeds and obstacles, offers a poetic glimpse into the scope of these digital universes.

Lands of Ancient Power: Elden Ring

Beyond Night City lies the Lands Between, where ancient gods have left their mark upon a world of beauty and terror. Elden Ring's tapestry of landscapes—castles reaching toward the heavens, underground labyrinths stretching into darkness, and fields of golden grace—demands three and a half hours to traverse on foot.

The world unfolds like an ancient epic, each region a stanza in a poem of creation and destruction. Players mount their faithful Torrent, hooves thundering across plains where time itself seems to bend. Is this not the ultimate expression of digital freedom—to gallop beneath alien skies, seeking glory among the ruins of forgotten civilizations?

The Saga of Valhalla: A Nation's Breadth

What happens when developers seek to capture not just a city, but an entire nation? Assassin's Creed Valhalla answers with its rendition of 9th century Britain—a verdant expanse of rolling hills, ancient forests, and Roman ruins that would require more than three hours to cross.

The Viking saga extends beyond these shores to the snowy fjords of Norway and the mysterious lands of Vinland, each with their own stories to tell. Though its settlements cannot match the vertical majesty of Night City's skyscrapers, the breadth of its world speaks to a different kind of ambition—the capturing of history itself within the confines of code.

People Also Ask:

Why do developers create such massive open worlds when players rarely explore them completely?

These digital frontiers serve not just as playgrounds but as statements of possibility. Like the grand cathedrals of Europe, they are built not because every corner will be seen, but because their very existence inspires awe. They are monuments to human creativity, expressions of what can be achieved when technology and artistry converge.

Do larger worlds necessarily make for better gameplay experiences?

Size alone does not determine quality. A vast empty desert cannot compare to a small garden filled with wonders. The greatest open worlds balance scope with substance, ensuring that discovery awaits around every corner.

Bolivia Reimagined: Ghost Recon Wildlands

In Ghost Recon Wildlands, players face a journey of four and a half hours to cross its fictional Bolivia on foot. Mountains rise like titans from the earth, their shadows falling across deserts, jungles, and salt flats. Villages nestle in valleys where the digital sun casts the same golden light it has since time immemorial.

This vastness serves a purpose beyond mere impressiveness—it creates a canvas for tactical freedom. When players soar above in helicopters or planes before deploying via parachute, the scale creates genuine strategic options rather than mere illusion. Is this not the essence of open-world design—that freedom should be meaningful rather than merely expansive?

Pandora's Living Canvas: Avatar Frontiers

Perhaps no world better exemplifies the evolution of digital landscapes than 2024's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. At five hours to cross on foot—nearly double Night City's expanse—Pandora represents the current pinnacle of open-world ambition.

Here, players do not merely traverse terrain; they become part of a living ecosystem. Bioluminescent plants respond to touch, creatures hunt and flee according to complex patterns, and the very air seems charged with digital life. Soaring through the skies on the back of an Ikran, players experience a freedom that transcends the mere crossing of distance—they become one with the world itself.

The Ultimate Playground: Just Cause 3

At the furthest extreme stands Just Cause 3's Medici, a Mediterranean paradise whose crossing would demand eight hours of continuous walking—almost three complete journeys across Night City. Yet this comparison misses the point of Medici's design.

This is not a world meant for walking but for explosive creativity. With grappling hooks, wingsuits, and an arsenal that would make action movie directors blush, players transform this vast canvas into a playground of kinetic possibility. The size exists not to impress but to provide room for the most extravagant stunts imaginable.

The Future Horizon: Where Do We Go From Here?

As we stand in 2025, looking at these digital continents, one cannot help but wonder: what comes next? Will tomorrow's worlds extend beyond the horizon, demanding days rather than hours to cross? Or will developers turn inward, creating denser, more reactive environments where every alley and rooftop holds purpose?

I dream of worlds where size and substance achieve perfect harmony—where the vastness of Medici meets the vertical density of Night City, all infused with the living systems of Pandora. Imagine standing atop a skyscraper in a metropolis that stretches beyond sight, knowing that every window represents a story, every street a potential adventure, and beyond the city limits, wilderness awaits with its own tales to tell.

Will our hardware support such ambitions? Will our creative energy sustain them? The answer lies not in technology alone but in our continued desire to explore, to discover, to lose ourselves in worlds limited only by imagination.

As the boundaries between reality and digital experience continue to blur, perhaps the question is not how big these worlds will become, but how deeply they will affect us. For in the end, isn't the true measure of a virtual world not the time it takes to cross it, but the memories we create along the way?

🌍 World Size Comparison Chart (Walking Time):

Game	Walking Time	Release Year	Notable Features
Cyberpunk 2077	~3 hours	2020	Vertical urban landscape, dense city design
Elden Ring	~3.5 hours	2022	Legacy dungeons, underground areas, mounted exploration
AC Valhalla	>3 hours (Britain only)	2020	Multiple separate maps, historical setting
Ghost Recon Wildlands	~4.5 hours	2017	Diverse biomes, vehicle variety
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora	~5 hours	2024	Reactive ecosystem, flying mounts
Just Cause 3	~8 hours	2015	Grappling hook traversal, extreme mobility options

Details are provided by Polygon, a leading source for gaming culture and industry insights. Polygon's extensive features on open-world game design often emphasize how player agency and environmental storytelling are crucial in making vast digital landscapes feel alive, echoing the sentiment that the true value of these worlds lies not just in their size but in the memorable experiences they foster.