The 10 Smallest Open-World Game Maps

Every year, with every release, open-world games compete for the title of having the biggest and most complete map, full of activities, hidden secrets, and little surprises that only the most attentive players can discover, like a horned bunny, a peculiar couple arguing, or a marking on a post that might lead to a hidden quest.

The Assassin's Creed series even turned this into a selling point, claiming with each release that it had a bigger map than the last, faithfully reproducing spaces like France during the 18th-century French Revolution and Notre Dame Cathedral (which served as a reference for the reconstruction of the real cathedral that burned down in 2019). But what about the opposite? Smaller, shorter maps where you can explore everything quickly, without spending hours and hours by boat, on foot, or on horseback?

If you're tired of exploring giant worlds, let's talk about some of the shortest and quickest maps to explore, and if you have any questions, leave a comment.

Starting with the one that kicked off the competition for ever-larger and denser maps, we have the original adventure of Altäir Ibn-La’Ahad fighting against the Templars and searching for the Apple of Eden, the artifact capable of controlling minds and winning the hearts of multitudes. A terrible weapon that, if it fell into the wrong hands, would use the power of the first civilization, the Isu, and could cause the end of civilization as we know it.

The first game has a humble little map of only 0.13 km². This map from the original Assassin's Creed recreates the Holy Land on a small scale, especially when compared to the rest of the maps in the series. A survey of map sizes in the series cites that the city of Damascus, from the first game, covers only 0.13 km².

Although compact, the game takes advantage of the density of medieval cities, allowing each street and rooftop to have a purpose for parkour and stealth. It was the beginning of increasingly larger maps with more things to do. But, for the time it was released, it was a very well-made map and still had the detail that we couldn't even swim to explore faster.

The final part of Ezio's adventure, now older and more experienced, is the perfect conclusion to the life of the most charismatic and beloved assassin in the entire franchise (okay, he had three games to develop, plus spin-offs and even an animated film, so it's easy to get attached to him), and it has a relatively modest map, especially when compared to the games that came after.

The story depicts the end of Ezio's life, as he searches for the fortress of Massiaf, the home of the ancient assassins in the Holy Land. He’s ambushed by Templars and manages to escape and survive, but his investigation reveals that his former mentor, Altaïr, gave the descendants of the navigator Marco Polo a diary showing the location of the keys to the ancient library of Massiaf, where a secret of the ancient assassins resides. He must discover what it is and prevent this power from falling into the hands of his enemies.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations was released in November 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows and has a map, according to comparison tables, with a playable area measuring approximately 0.97 × 0.97 km (about 0.94 km²). Therefore, it's possible to explore the entire city of Constantinople easily, especially with the invention of the Hookblade that came with the game.

The sequel to a great saga that ended with a rather questionable conclusion. That's Batman: Arkham City, a game that showed how superhero games should be made and taught us that it's possible to create fluid, dynamic combat without the player realizing that the enemy is just "waiting for their turn to get beaten up". Batman: Arkham City is considered the best game in the series, by far.

The story continues after the end of the previous game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, with the mayor of Gotham deciding that an entire section of the city would be fenced off and transformed into Arkham Asylum, housing the insane and supervillains imprisoned in the Asylum alongside the criminals from Black Gate Prison. Batman goes to the location and wants to discover who’s behind this idea and stop the plans of villains like the Joker and Dr. Strange.

A comparison of map sizes with other games indicates that Arkham City is approximately 1 km². Despite its small size, the vertical district features rooftops, alleys, and interconnected interiors, which favors Batman's acrobatic movement and concentrates a large number of missions and villains in a restricted area.

One of the most ambitious and expensive games for the SEGA Dreamcast, Shenmue revolutionized its era with its well-defined NPC routines, 3D open world, day and night cycles, quick-time events and minigames, and a mature, original story with an oriental flavor rarely seen at the time.

The story takes place in Yokosuka, Japan, in 1986. Young Ryo Hazuki returns to his father's dojo and witnesses the assassin Lan Di demand the Dragon Mirror; after killing Iwao Hazuki, Lan Di flees with the artifact. Ryo vows to avenge his father, investigating the local mafia and taking odd jobs as a forklift operator. He discovers another artifact, the Phoenix Mirror, and prepares to travel to Hong Kong to find Lan Di.

According to the website Dualshockers, the map of Yokosuka can be traversed from one end to the other in a few minutes and is approximately 2.5 km², but the map is so densely populated, with well-established routines and personalities, that it makes it seem much larger.

Gothic was developed by the German studio Piranha Bytes and released in 2001 for PC, quickly becoming a benchmark among European open-world RPGs, mainly due to its unique approach to freedom, progression, and consequences. The story takes place in a medieval fantasy kingdom at war with orcs, where the king decides to isolate prisoners within a penal colony surrounded by a magical barrier that goes out of control and ends up trapping everyone inside, including its creator.

The player takes on the role of a nameless prisoner who receives the seemingly simple mission of delivering a letter to the Fire Mages, but ends up involved in much bigger problems. Throughout the journey, he must deal with three main factions: the Old Camp, the New Camp, and the Brotherhood, each with its own interests, rules, and very different ways of surviving in that place.

Even with a relatively compact map, estimated at around 1.1 km² according to the Gamepressure website, the game manages to make excellent use of its space, with purposeful areas, well-distributed NPCs, and missions that make the world feel alive, without that feeling of an overly large and empty map that would become common years later.

Released for PlayStation 2 and developed by Sega and Amusement Vision, this game marked a clear shift in how action games portrayed urban cities. Set in the Japanese underworld, it blends real-time brawling with RPG elements, mini-games, and is centered around the fictional city of Kamurocho, which was inspired by the Kabukichō district.

Yakuza follows Kazuma Kiryu, a Yakuza member who took the blame for the murder of his boss to protect Yumi, a childhood friend, and spends ten years in prison. Upon his release, he finds a completely different scenario, with his clan collapsed after a billion-dollar heist and being hunted by various criminal families. Amidst this chaos, Kiryu must also protect Haruka, a girl who becomes central to the plot.

The gameplay revolves around exploring the city and beat 'em up style combat, with progression based on experience points that unlock new moves and abilities, and some rather strange minigames, such as having lunch with a pretty girl or singing karaoke. Even with a map estimated at around 5 km² by Gamepressure, Kamurocho has density, shops, clubs, alleys, random events, and a wide variety of minigames, such as arcades, casinos, pachislot, street fights, and side missions, compensating for the map size with life and fun.

Bully, from Rockstar (the same company behind GTA), showed that it could create interesting open worlds even in a relatively closed environment.

Here you control the troubled student Jimmy Hopkins, sent to Bullworth Academy boarding school after being abandoned by his mother and stepfather, starting a new life inside and outside of school. You can freely roam the campus and also the city of Bullworth, divided into neighborhoods such as Bullworth Vale, Blue Skies, New Coventry, and Old Bullworth Vale, each with its own identity.

The missions revolve around conflicts between different groups, such as Brutes, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers, Jocks, and Townies, showing a social hierarchy that changes according to Jimmy's attitudes. Classes aren’t mandatory, but function as minigames that unlock social advantages, such as apologizing to or provoking other students, creating 'chemical' weapons with chemistry classes, repairing bikes, or gaining bonuses with Photography.

Even with a map estimated at around 5 km², according to developer reports in interviews and forums, Bully made excellent use of its space, keeping exploration simple, direct, and always full of activities, without areas that are too large or empty, which gives a feeling of a much larger and more vibrant space.

Subnautica, released in 2018, features a different kind of open world, placing almost all the action underwater. The player controls Ryley Robinson, a survivor of a spaceship crash on an alien planet, 4546B, and you'll need to explore the ocean to understand what happened to your ship, how you ended up on this planet, survive, and find a way to escape.

The underwater open world revolves around 4 km², although there’s disagreement in some lists and discussions online, but the consensus revolves around this number. But to highlight its density and, especially, its verticality, which makes each dive make the world seem denser and more significant than simply traversing large distances. Just like Batman: Arkham City, whose map extends both upwards and downwards, in Subnautica you don't just go forward, sideways and backward, but also downwards. Way downwards.

Sleeping Dogs, released in 2012, places the player in a fictional Hong Kong full of narrow streets, alleys, and a strong influence from Kung Fu films like "Bloodsport," "Enter the Dragon", "Way of the Dragon", and others that have "Dragon" in the title. The story follows police officer Wei Shen, who returns from America to infiltrate the Sun On Yee triad, constantly living between his duty as a law enforcement agent and his forced loyalty to the underworld.

You'll fight hard on these streets in pursuit of your goals, visiting locations filled with NPCs with distinct routines and personalities on a map estimated at around 8.8 km². This relatively short but extremely dense map features markets, shops, underground events, plenty of people to fight, and missions spread across four districts, reinforcing the feeling of a vibrant, always bustling, and dangerous city.

Released in 2014 (after an impressive presentation at The Game Awards and a launch with downgraded graphics, with modders finding the presentation graphics within the game files and restoring them) by Ubisoft Montreal, it features an urban open world centered on digital surveillance and information control. A franchise that started well and is now buried in the company's closets, (perhaps) never to return.

Set in a futuristic Chicago, you are Aiden Pearce, a hacker seeking revenge after the death of his niece during an attack that targeted him. Using a smartphone, he can manipulate traffic lights, bridges, cameras, bank accounts, and civilian phones, turning the city itself into his main weapon. Shootouts, stealth, car chases, and free exploration have made Watch Dogs an IP with many fans who were left orphaned after the last, ambitious, and flopped game, Watch Dogs Legion.

With a map estimated at around 12 km², this fictional version of Chicago isn't gigantic by genre standards, but it compensates for this with high interactivity: messing with everyone's cell phones, traffic lights, and cars causes dynamic events and bypasses systems that make every stroll through the city have some kind of consequence within the world.