The 10 Best Open-World Games Ever Made
Hyrule, the Old West, the Lands Between and a certain blocky sandbox: the open worlds the internet can't stop returning to, from freeform classics to modern marvels.
Ranked by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini — models trained on just about every review, critic poll, fan forum and best-of list ever written. Ask them enough times and you get the internet's consensus.
What open-world game should I play right now?
Start with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017).
Already played it? Try Red Dead Redemption 2 · Deep cut: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- 1
Nintendo reinvented Zelda by handing players a vast Hyrule and letting them climb anything, glide anywhere and tackle the story in almost any order. Its physics-driven freedom set the modern standard. Claude had it as its #1.
GChatGPT#2CClaude#1GeGemini#2 - 2
2.Red Dead Redemption 2
2018
Rockstar's Old West epic pairs a staggeringly detailed world with a heartbreaking outlaw story. Every campfire and horse feels lived in. ChatGPT and Gemini both had it as their #1, and it just missed the top.
GChatGPT#1CClaude#4GeGemini#1 - 3
3.The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
2015
Geralt's monster-hunting odyssey made side quests feel like full stories, with choices that carry real weight. Its war-torn Northern Realms are packed with memorable characters. A rock-solid pick, it landed in the top four everywhere.
GChatGPT#3CClaude#3GeGemini#4 - 4
4.Elden Ring
2022
FromSoftware took its punishing formula into a sprawling, secret-stuffed world and let players wander off in any direction. Discovery is the real reward here. Claude and Gemini both ranked it as high as #2.
GChatGPT#4CClaude#2GeGemini#3 - 5
5.Grand Theft Auto V
2013
Los Santos is a satirical, sun-soaked sandbox with three protagonists, heists and endless chaos. Years after launch it remains a blockbuster benchmark for city-sized open worlds, and it made every engine's top ten.
GChatGPT#5CClaude#5GeGemini#6 - 6
Bethesda's snowy Nordic fantasy made "I got distracted on the way there" a way of life. Dragons, caves and near-limitless mods keep it alive well over a decade later. Every engine put it in the top ten.
GChatGPT#6CClaude#6GeGemini#5 - 7
7.Fallout: New Vegas
2010
Obsidian's Mojave Wasteland offers rich faction politics, sharp writing and consequences that actually matter. It's the RPG-lover's open world, and a cult favorite that every engine placed in its top ten.
GChatGPT#8CClaude#9GeGemini#7 - 9
Rockstar's PS2-era giant gave players an entire state of three cities, countryside and deserts, with a crime saga to match. It's a landmark of scale and freedom. ChatGPT and Claude loved it; Gemini skipped it.
GChatGPT#9CClaude#8GeGeminiskipped it - 10
Breath of the Wild's sequel adds sky islands, underground depths and wildly inventive build-anything tools. It scrapes into the list on Claude's strong support, while Gemini left it out.
GChatGPT#11CClaude#7GeGeminiskipped it
Lone wolves
In one AI's top 10, never named by the others.
- CThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Questions
- What open-world game should I play right now?
- Start with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017). Already played it? Try Red Dead Redemption 2 or, for something less obvious, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
- According to AI, what is #1 of the best open-world games ever made?
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017). Claude put it first; the combined vote across all 15 answers made it #1.
- Do ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini agree on the best open-world games ever made?
- Partly. 7 of the 10 picks made all 3 AIs' lists. The biggest split was Minecraft: ChatGPT #7, Claude didn't list it, Gemini #8.
- Which best open-world games ever made did only one AI pick?
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (only Claude).
- How was this ranking of the best open-world games ever made made?
- We asked ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini "What are the 10 best open-world games ever made? Rank them from 1 to 10, best first." 5 times each, every time in a fresh chat, in 2026-10. A #1 earns 10 points and a #10 earns 1; each AI's points are averaged over its runs and each AI gets an equal say.
Keep arguing
The 10 Best RPGs of All Time
From a 2023 phenomenon to a 1995 time-travel classic, the role-playing games that define the genre, plus the one ChatGPT shrugged off and the one Gemini skipped.
The 10 Best Video Games of All Time
From a falling-blocks puzzler to a 3D Hyrule, this list spans four decades of play, with Nintendo's heavy hitters, PC landmarks and one very punishing action RPG.
The 10 Best Zelda Games
From the open-air freedom of Hyrule's newest adventures to the 8-bit original, here are the Zelda games the whole internet keeps coming back to.
The 10 Best Nintendo Games Ever Made
Two Zelda adventures lead a list stacked with Mario platformers, Metroid classics and one kart racer that crashed the party.
Some links are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission, at no cost to you. It never affects the rankings — the AIs don't know.
How this list was made · image credits
We asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini “What are the 10 best open-world games ever made? Rank them from 1 to 10, best first.” 5 times each, every time in a fresh chat, collected 2026-10-06. A #1 earns 10 points and a #10 earns 1; each AI's points are averaged over its runs, and each AI gets an equal say.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- Red Dead Redemption 2: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- Elden Ring: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- Grand Theft Auto V: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- Fallout: New Vegas: Xbox México, CC BY 3.0
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: via Wikipedia (non-free, used for commentary)
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