Is No Man‘s Sky Bigger Than Earth? A Galactic-Sized Exploration
As a passionate gamer with over 100 hours of play time in No Man‘s Sky, I can definitively say that its procedurally generated universe utterly dwarfs the size of our home planet Earth. This article will showcase just how massive NMS is in scope and scale using facts, figures, and first-hand experiences from my gameplay adventures.
At its core, No Man‘s Sky contains over 18 quintillion planets
To answer the key question plainly – yes, No Man‘s Sky is remarkably bigger than Earth. Our planet is a terrestrial sphere with roughly 200 million square miles of surface area. No Man‘s Sky contains over 18 quintillion planets across 255 galaxies, each planet as vast and explorable as Earth.
Art envisioning the galaxies of No Man‘s Sky (Image credit: Alpha Coders)
That 18 quintillion number is near impossible to conceptualize. But how does it compare tangibly?
Quantifying the vast scale: surface area and spatial comparisons
Let‘s explore metrics that showcase just how gargantuan No Man‘s Sky‘s galaxy is:
- 5 trillion+ Earth surface areas: If you added up the collective surface area of every single planet and moon in NMS, it would equate to over 7 trillion times the area of Earth‘s surface.
- 400 billion Solar Systems: Our solar system contains 8 planets and some dwarf planets, with a total terrestrial surface area of around 200 billion square miles. You could fit the surface area of 400 billion solar systems just like ours inside No Man‘s Sky‘s galaxy.
- 231 quintillion number of atoms in the universe: Leading physics estimations calculate that the observable universe consists of around 221 to 231 quintillion observable atoms. By comparison, No Man‘s Sky contains 18 quintillion fully explorable planets – an amount approaching the total sum of atoms scientists are aware of.
| No Man‘s Sky Stat | Earth Stat | Factor Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 18 quintillion planets | 1 planet | 18 quintillion x larger |
| 5 trillion+ Earth surface areas | 200 million sq. miles | 7 trillion x larger surface area |
| Equivalent to 400 billion solar systems | Our 1 solar system | 400 billion x larger |
These numbers showcase the galaxy-sized scale that No Man‘s Sky operates on, profoundly bigger than anything we can relatistically comprehend on Earth.
Every new world sparks the imagination with procedural variety
Vivid colors on an exotic world (Image credit: Hello Games)
Core to No Man‘s Sky is procedural generation – worlds are created algorithmically rather than fully hand-designed. This enables near-unlimited variety, ensuring no two planets feel quite the same.
Across my gameplay, I‘ve traversed unforgettable landscapes from leisurely scuba diving in glowing azure oceans underneath cotton candy skies to navigating violent electrical storms on planets engulfed perpetually in dusk. I‘ve witnessed 20-foot tall mushrooms scattered across rainbow-colored grasslands and 100-foot tall creatures leisurely roaming barren moonscapes.
Every celestial body contains its own terrain quirks, environment types, flora distribution and fauna to discover. There are frigid ice worlds, scorched nuclear planets, poisonous hellscapes, and paradisaical oases CAPABLE of supporting life. The diversity never fails to spark my imagination on what I might discover next.
With quintillions upon quintillions of worlds, each as vast as planet Earth, the procedural algorithms powering No Man‘s Sky produce cosmic-scale variety that outpaces what even the most skilled developer teams could design manually. This leads to near-endless surprises just waiting over the next uncharted horizon.
Reaching every planet would take eons upon eons
To drive home just how long it would take to fully explore every planet in NMS, let‘s run some numbers.
- 585 billion years to visit each planet for just 1 second: If you somehow managed to discover a new planet every single second, it would still take 585 billion years to land on them all. For context, our universe is estimated to be less than 14 billion years old!
- 8 hours per planet = 580 trillion years: Realistically, landing and exploring any given planet would take hours. If we assume 8 hours of discovery per planet, exploring the collective 18 quintillion planets would require 580 trillion years.
Now imagine not just landing but completely surveying every planet at a walking pace:
- 12+ hours to walk half a planet: As one intrepid player chronicled, walking half way around a single NMS planet took 12 hours straight.
- 23+ hours to walk one full circuit: Extrapolating that, walking an entire circumference would take over 23 hours.
- 4 tredecillion days to walk them all: Walking just ONE complete loop around every single one of No Man Sky‘s 18 quintillion planets would demand a nearly inconcievable 4 tredecillion days. That‘s equivalent to 100 billion times the age of our observable universe!
The simple fact is, no single explorer could ever hope to traverse the full scale of what No Man‘s Sky‘s procedural generation affords. It creates a sense of infiniteness unmatched in recent gaming history.
As a gamer, I‘m floored by NMS‘s technical achievements
As someone who‘s followed the gaming industry closely for over a decade and played all the most expansive titles, the sheer vastness No Man‘s Sky realizes impresses me endlessly.
The fact that a small, 12-person studio in Hello Games conceived and executed on procedural generation of this scale as an indie project makes it even more monumental as an achievement. Sean Murray and the Hello Games team leveraged complex math algorithms to produce cosmic diversity that far surpasses what even the largest AAA studios could design manually.
What‘s truly special about No Man‘s Sky is not just the record-setting scale of quintillions of planets – it‘s that every single one contains substantive gameplay as vivid, explorable terrain. The illusive alchemy of No Man‘s Sky for me is feeling unbounded creative potential born from programmed randomness on a per-planet basis.
That spark of discovery and sense of the infinite keeps me returning. I always wonder if this next solar system might present some never-before-seen alien vista. So far, 195 hours in, that magic persists for me.
In closing, I‘m confident stating that No Man‘s Sky stands tall as the largest and most ambitious video game world ever created. It rightfully earns a spot alongside mankind‘s grandest creative achievements by translating our innate sci-fi dreams of exploring the great unknown into a compelling, unrivaled digital frontier. If this article piques your interest even slightly in that infinite potential, I encourage you to blast off and make your mark on this ever-expanding procedural galaxy.
Game images provided by official copyright holder Hello Games. Comparative numerical data compiled from Wikipedia, gaming sites, Hello Games public remarks, and Reddit fan analyses.
