No Man‘s Sky Boasts the Largest Map in Video Game History

With over 5,560 square miles of drivable terrain, the post-apocalyptic console racing game Fuel holds the current record for the largest map in a racing title.

To put Fuel‘s massive map into perspective, here are some jaw-dropping facts:

• It would take over 3 hours of continuous high-speed driving to cross from one end of Fuel‘s map to the other.
• The map area is estimated to be larger than the entire state of Connecticut.
• You could fit approximately 230,000 football fields within Fuel‘s playable race area.

As a passionate racing enthusiast, I am blown away by the sheer ambition of Fuel‘s map. Modern racing game maps simply pale in comparison. The developers at Asobo Studio managed to craft a incredibly detailed post-apocalyptic world saturated with diverse biomes at a scale never seen before or since in the genre.

What‘s Inside Fuel‘s Gigantic Map?

While Fuel‘s map clearly takes the medal for pure size, one might ask – what‘s actually filling all that space?

Well strap yourself in, because Fuel packs its 53,560,000 acres with:

• Over a dozen unique environments – from lush forests to barren canyons, coastal cities to snow-peaked mountains
• 16 hour single player campaign taking players across the entire map and back again.
• AI rivals also traversing the map for unpredictable, emergent gameplay.
• Plenty of challenges and collectables scattered far and wide.

Despite being over a decade old, Fuel‘s gigantic map paired with its post-apocalyptic world remains extremely impressive even by 2023 open world standards.

While games like Forza Horizon 5 and Test Drive Unlimited 2 might boast advances in graphics and gameplay, Fuel still stands atop them all for sheer map size and scope.

Racing Game Maps by drivable surface area (Square Miles)

As demonstrated above, no other racing title comes close the vast expanse of Fuel‘s map. Forza Horizon 5, the latest and greatest open world racer from Playground Games is still 70 times smaller than Fuel‘s map!

And this table only covers drivable terrain. When factoring in non-drivable areas, Fuel‘s map size lead grows even more substantial.

The Future of Big Maps in Racing Games

While I firmly believe Fuel‘s 5,560 drivable miles record won‘t be surpassed any time soon, future racing releases could potentially close the gap.

Forza Horizon 6 is on the horizon, likely once the new generation of consoles have fully matured. Based on Playground Games‘ track record of increasing their map sizes each sequel, I anticipate a larger world in line with previous bumps.

Perhaps they‘ll go really big for next-gen only and get close to 1000 miles? That would still pale compared to Fuel‘s benchmark, but impressive nonetheless!

The potential dark horse that I speculate could topple Fuel lies with an untapped racing subgenre – MMORPGs. Imagine a racing interpretation of massive multiplayer online worlds seen in the likes of Elder Scrolls Online or GTA Online.

If a developer were ambitious enough to attempt a massively multiplayer online racing game, THEN collecting a huge, persistent world is viable. Especially as gaming technology continues advancing.

But until such a game reveals itself, Fuel remains king of racing game maps for its unprecedented 5,560 miles of virtual roared terrain. Hats off the Asobo for crafting such an ambitiously scaled world!

Let me know your thoughts on Fuel‘s map and hopes for future contenders in the comments below!