The biggest open-world game of the decade, GTA 6, comes out in a few months, but Rockstar needs to bring its A-game to earn the right to be labeled as the best. So far, the 2020s have refused to stop producing open-world masterpieces, with seemingly every month containing something new that completely takes over the lives of thousands of people. In 2026 alone, we’ve already had Crimson Desert, Forza Horizon 6, LEGO Batman: Legacy of The Dark Knight, and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.
This tide doesn’t seem likely to turn anytime soon, so we should just ride it for as long as we can. From Japanese epics to realistic sims and cyberpunk revivals, here are the very best open-world games of the current decade, starting from 2020. Will GTA 6 surpass all of them? Or even any of them?
10
Palworld Is Unabashedly Fun
More Than Pokemon With Guns
- 2024 (Early Access); 2026 (1.0)
- A true Frankenstein’s monster
Technically, Palworld only released on July 10, 2026… but the game has been firmly cemented as a staple since it entered early access in early 2024. An open-world survival base-building creature-collecting shooter, Palworld tries to do absolutely everything, a recipe that should have led to an unmitigated mess. Yet, Pocketpair manages to keep all the pieces together enough to transform this mashup into a surprisingly consistent modern delight.
Palpagos Islands might not be the most visually exciting open world ever, but it works really well as essentially real estate. Wherever you go, you arrive with a purpose, be it to capture a new Pal, mine a resource, clear out a camp, or build an assembly line. This open world makes every square meter feel like it matters, and the 1.0 version has a lot of square meters.
9
Ghost of Yōtei Is An Open-World Revenge Epic
Sucker Punch Is On A Roll
- 2025
- The “more of the same” sequel that 100% finds its own voice
Ghost of Tsushima started the 2020s on a high note for the open-world genre, and Ghost of Yōtei celebrated the decade’s mid-point in style. Although the fundamentals have largely been retained, the sequel doesn’t feel like a retread of its predecessor, primarily because 1603 Ezo (aka Hokkaido) is almost the exact opposite of Tsushima. Telling a good old-fashioned revenge story, Yōtei brings to life an untamed and lawless era of Japan that feels far removed from any Samurai romanticism.
You don’t need me to tell you the visuals are gorgeous, though that has more to do with the art style, clean presentation, and biomes than just sheer graphical prowess. Ghost of Yōtei expands the combat system by moving away from rigid sword stances, with Atsu instead utilizing different weapons that demand unique tactical approaches. The gameplay is fantastic from start to finish, and it’s elevated by a story that, to some extent, lets players carve out their own path and hunt down the main villains in almost any order.
8
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is A Revelation
Finally, Square Enix Released A Top-Tier Open-World Game
- 2024
- You will laugh, shout, cry, and become addicted to a card game.
Square Enix’s track record with open-world games isn’t great, to be honest. Final Fantasy 15 has its moments, and most of them are underwhelming. Forspoken‘s combat can be fun, but everything else is a let-down. I guess Square published Sleeping Dogs back in the day, and that’s an awesome game.
Fortunately, Square hit the mark when it mattered the most: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Forced to leave Midgar, Cloud and the rest of Avalanche find themselves gazing over an endless horizon, a world filled with possibilities, traps, allies, enemies, and many, many distractions. For like 80% of its run, the campaign limits players to massive regions, allowing Rebirth to constantly shake up its formula (and type of mount), taking you from the vibrant Grasslands to the dusty Cosmo Canyon, the sun-baked Costa del Sol, and the theme park lights of the Gold Saucer.
Although it copies a few notes from the Ubisoft formula, FF7 Rebirth nevertheless shines thanks to the quality of its writing, characters, combat, and mini-games. You always have something to do, and you can generally decide for how long you will do it before moving on to the next chapter.
7
Genshin Impact Is The Most Influential Open-World Game Of The Decade
Also, It Ain’t Bad!
- 2020
- Now, miHoYo rules the world
Perhaps an unpopular pick, but we cannot ignore Genshin Impact‘s influence on the gaming landscape. When miHoYo’s open-world game became a global phenomenon, it not only opened the floodgates for other gacha RPGs to emerge, but it also spearheaded a movement that has enabled non-Japanese Asian games to expand more consistently to international audiences. If it weren’t for Genshin Impact, the likes of Wuthering Waves, Tower of Fantasy, and Neverness to Everness might not exist, not to mention miHoYo’s subsequent hits, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero.
Looking beyond its, well, impact, Genshin Impact is also rather great, and it has been that way for more than 5 years. Regularly adding new characters, quests, locations, and weapons, Teyvat has grown into a continent filled with wildly different cultures and landscapes. Each nation comes with a well-defined aesthetic, a unique exploration gimmick, and enough meaty content to fill up full RPGs.
6
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Is Better But Also Worse
Doesn’t Matter, Still Brilliant
- 2025
- A Hideo Kojima masterpiece
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is a strange case. By nearly every metric, Kojima Productions improved the very polarizing first game, releasing a sequel that doesn’t make you work quite as hard to have fun. However, Death Stranding 2 feels a little less special than its predecessor, despite being a more well-rounded experience.
Now that Sam has linked up with a fractured, post-apocalyptic United States, he starts working on an uncharted continent outside the UCA: Australia. Traveling across these new frontiers introduces entirely unpredictable, alien environmental hazards, and pitch-black volcanic ash fields, shifting desert dunes, and jagged, vertical mountain ranges force you to change your route planning. DS2 streamlines the traversal mechanics to make way for a more action-heavy campaign, overhauling the first game’s clumsy combat to create one defined by weight and fluidity.
Besides playing really well, DS2 also looks ridiculously good. Seriously, show a random screenshot to a non-gamer, and they might think they are staring at reality (as long as it doesn’t contain a body of water).
5
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Is Yakuza At Its Best
Enjoy The Island Life
- 2024
- Who doesn’t want to visit Hawaii?
Like a Dragon, aka Yakuza, approaches open-world design from a unique angle compared to most other franchises. Rather than square miles, the games prioritize density, crafting urban environments rich in personality, side stories, and pure silliness. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is considerably more expansive than any previous entries in the franchise, but it remains 100% committed to the same game plan.
For the first time, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio steps outside Japan, and the developer couldn’t have chosen a better place than Honolulu, Hawaii. Infinite Wealth impressively brings to life one of the world’s most beautiful locations, capturing its touristy appeal and, crucially, its local flavor. Like with any other game in the series, Infinite Wealth is just as much about Honolulu’s residents as it is about the city itself, and Ichiban gets intimately familiar with hundreds of people who call the island their home.
Obviously, the main story is quite good, even if it doesn’t necessarily reach the same heights as Yakuza 0 or Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but Infinite Wealth is a 10/10 in pretty much every other area.
4
Cyberpunk 2077 Has Had A Weird Decade
From The Most Hated To One Of The Best Games Of The 2020s
- 2020 (Originally); 2023 (2.0 / “Phantom Liberty”)
- The greatest comeback story since No Man’s Sky
CD Projekt Red started the decade by dropping a wildly disappointing and anger-inducing open-world game that threatened to ruin the goodwill amassed by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a turn of events that nobody could have foreseen. Yet, here we are in 2026, and that very same game comfortably sits among the decade’s greatest open-world games. Cyberpunk 2077 is a masterpiece, and that’s not even a controversial statement anymore!
CD Projekt Red shouldn’t get a pass for C2077‘s launch state, but that’s not the version of the game that everybody has been playing for years now. Dropped into the futuristic but familiar Night City, players are guided through the metropolis’s seedy underbelly and corrupt skyscrapers. In fact, Night City’s verticality is one of its most impressive features, as it is far from the flat experiences that once defined open-world games in the early 2010s.
C2077 captures the cyberpunk spirit through sheer excess, packing so much aggressive noise that it can be intoxicating. Beyond the world itself, the game’s character customization ranks among the very best, and you can create some really OP monsters who turn Night City into their personal playground.
3
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Is The Medieval RPG To End All Medieval RPGs
The Most Immersive Open-World Game Of The Decade
- 2025
- Realistic, but not to a fault like its predecessor
Kingdom Come: Deliverance was among the most ambitious games of the last decade, and Warhorse Studios deserves props for putting together a very impressive project that stuck to its guns and prioritizes immersion and realism above everything else. If you loved it, you really loved it; however, it asked a lot of players. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 smooths out the rough edges and lowers the barrier for entry, while still mostly retaining everything that made its predecessor so brilliant.
KCD2 does exactly what every sequel should do: refine, expand, and improve. The first-person combat is still brutal and relies on practice, but the campaign’s better pacing means you rarely find yourself in fights that are well beyond your skill level. The main story delves into the ongoing war in Bohemia, continuing Henry’s journey while simultaneously extending its scope beyond just the personal. Although absurdly huge, the world stops shy of becoming overwhelming since the game expects you to take your time and take things slow.
While I would recommend KCD2 to anybody who hated the first game, you should give it a go if you almost fell in love with the original.
2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Is Not BOTW, But Rather Something More
The Ultimate Sandbox Open-World Game Of The Decade
- 2023
- Maybe the most freeing open-world game ever
Breath of the Wild was a lot of people’s best game of the 2010s, setting the stage for a sequel that needed to be in the GOAT conversation to live up to the hype. Whether it surpassed BOTW comes down to individual preference, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom more than succeeded in building on the foundation set by its predecessor. Literally, in some ways.
Despite reusing the main map of Hyrule, TOTK makes a revisit feel entirely new in a few key ways. Firstly, you see the world from three layers: Surface, Sky Islands, and the Depths. The latter are polarizing, but these three combine to create a whole far more impressive than the sum of its parts. Since it is set in a post-post-apocalyptic world, we get to witness Hyrule’s rebuilding, and the world is far livelier than in BOTW.
Secondly, and most importantly, TOTK greatly expands the tools at your disposal, particularly through the introduction of the Ultrahand. The ultimate engineering tool, Link can grab, rotate, and combine various objects, resulting in wildly impressive creations like cars or even a mech. This specific mechanic cements TOTK as the quintessential sandbox game of the 2020s.
1
Elden Ring Is The Best Open-World Game (So Far)
Once You Enter The Lands Between, You Will Never Leave
- 2022
- Souls-like masterpiece that lasts forever and makes you love every second
Yeah, maybe the boring pick, but no other recent open-world game managed to make as big of a splash for as long as Elden Ring. FromSoftware’s magnum opus is the undisputed open-world triumph of the decade, at least if you are into grueling boss fights, sprawling worlds, build crafting, and diving deep into hidden lore.
While you get the traditional “Dark Souls” dungeons that switch to a more Metroidvania design, Elden Ring is otherwise a pure open-ended sandbox experience. Go where you want, fight who you want, and die as many times as you want. Except for a quick hint that guides you towards the next mandatory encounter, the game mostly leaves you alone and doesn’t bombard you with quest markers.
The sense of wonder when you descend a random elevator into a subterranean starry sky or find a hidden legacy dungeon tucked away in a ravine recaptures the raw, forgotten magic of true adventure. The “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion offers (a lot) more of the same, just way harder.
Honestly, I prefer the more contained level design of Bloodborne and Dark Souls, but I can still appreciate what FromSoftware accomplished with Elden Ring.
Honorable Mentions: Other Great Open-World Games Of The 2020s
The following games almost made the cut:
- Where Winds Meet
- Crimson Desert
- Forza Horizon 5/6
- Echo Point Nova
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
