Sandbox games: the best open-world games to play right now

If you’re looking for a big new world to immerse yourself in, you need to play this list of the best sandbox games

If you want to spend hundreds of hours in a brand-new world, video games are perfect for. Modern open-world games are best for transporting you somewhere completely different, whether that’s an alien world, a fantasy land, or a historical time period. These games allow us to become digital tourists, photographing the sights we see in a place that may never have existed.

In this list, we’re celebrating these titles by listing the top ten sandbox games of all time. These huge open-ended experiences will feel as familiar as your childhood town once you’ve spent enough time exploring every corner and completing every quest.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Nintendo

This game launched and basically reinvented the open-world genre while revising the long-established Zelda formula. In this game the world was the main character, not Link, and exploring each part of it told a personal story of how you overcame those challenges. Did you wrap up warm with adequate clothing when heading into the mountains, or did you start a fire and carry the warmth with you on a branch? Breath of the Wild gives you the ability to make your own answers to every challenge, making it truly open in every sense.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games

While Breath of the Wild took the reins off and let you approach the story in any way – essentially placing it out of focus – Red Dead Redemption 2 allows you to interact with a giant world, with a linear story structure to carry you through it. It works brilliantly though, slowly guiding you through all of the important landmarks and locations of a giant landscape, while leaving more than enough curiosities for you to find by yourself if you’re daring enough.

Just Cause 3

Square Enix

It's not always about an epic adventure or an immersive experience. Sometimes all you want is a massive playground where you can wreak havoc and blow up everything in sight. That is quite literally the point of the game in Just Cause 3.

While the fourth game in the series is also great with added weather effects, we think three gets the edge for its outstanding DLC which will see you take down an Avengers-style high-tech airship, wander around in a giant mech-suit that has telekinetic powers, and a boat that shoots good.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

CD Projekt RED

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt set the bar for open-world RPGs on the PS4 and Xbox One generation, and it’s tough to argue that any other RPG has done it better since. Geralt’s journey through the Continent involves dozens of betrayals and uncertain endings, many of which you’ll never forget. Just remember, monsters lie.

Elden Ring

Bandai Namco

When FromSoftware took their iconic Dark Souls formula and told people they were placing it in an open world setting, no one was sure how it would work out. We had our doubts, but the journey across the Lands Between is truly incredible. Forts, castles, and dungeons litter the land, though you might not even be brave enough to move between them thanks to the vicious creatures you’ll find at every corner. A truly wonderful game.

Make sure you get the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda

What more can be said about Skyrim, honestly? It’s iconic, and it even got an Anniversary Edition released recently, adding yet more official content to a game that’s a decade old. But it’s one of the most popular games of all time, and for good reason. The game continues to be incredibly successful thanks to mod support and a community that just refuses to stop playing and creating for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Minecraft

Microsoft

Minecraft is endless. And that’s quite literal, as it’s genuinely impossible for you to explore all of Minecraft’s possible seeds and permeations within a human lifetime. But you can choose one of them and carve out your own paradise, building a castle, a farm, a civilization, or even a universe, if you’re dedicated enough. Minecraft can be educational, social, or even an intense solo experience, depending on what you want

Grand Theft Auto 5

Rockstar Games

With so much exploration, hacking, and predatory monetization going in the online, it's easy to forget just how brilliant of an open-world playground the GTA 5 single-player can be. This is a city where you have complete freedom to mess around to your heart's content with all sorts of silly challenges. Plus, if you play on PC you can add mods to the game that truly do let you do anything your heart can dream up.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed specializes in taking you to a beautifully recreated part of history, and Valhalla does that incredibly. Not only will you be traveling across medieval England, but Ireland, America, Paris, and even Asgard itself. It feels as if the level designers outdid themselves in Valhalla, bringing to life places both real and fictional to really immerse you in the Viking mythology.

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games

Forza Horizon 5 is unlike the other games on this list being a racer, but what could be better than driving through a paradise made of roads and dirt tracks? Not only will you slowly learn the bends in each road in detail, but you’ll be able to travel across this huge map in X-Country races that last more than 30 minutes in total, truly testing your knowledge of the land. You can spend hundreds of hours racing and competing in Forza Horizon 5.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

MonolithSoft

Any Xenoblade Chronicles game is perfect if you're looking for a vast open world, but the latest entry in the series is by far the most jam-packed with things to do, people to meet, and marvelous places to explore. With six main characters to play around with that can use any combination of over 20 different classes, the strategic depth in battle is virtually endless, so you'll never get tired of wandering this world and facing every challenge it has to offer.

Garry’s Mod

Valve

It’d be remiss of us to skip the game that helped define sandbox as a genre. While you can view open-world RPGs as sandbox games, Garry’s Mod leans more towards the complete freedom end of the spectrum. Admittedly it shows its age quite a lot these days, but it still holds a lot of fond memories for many. You can create all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff, and play a bunch of game modes like Murder, Prop Hunt, or Trouble in Terrorist Town, which have been inspiring Minecraft minigames for a decade.

Rust

Facepunch Studios

Do you like coming home to find that your home has been torn to pieces and raided while you were out? No? Well, how about going out and raiding the suckers who didn’t properly secure their home and running away with a horde of stuff? Rust is a good simulation of both. It’s a multiplayer survival sandbox where you can construct all sorts of cool bases, but the tone is much harsher than something like Minecraft. You will be attacked and looted by others, and are expected to do the same.

Horizon Forbidden West

Sony

The Horizon games are the place to go if you want to see sweeping landscapes of gorgeous terrain as far as the eye can see. It's one of the most technically advanced open-world games ever made, with a solid story and likable characters to boot. It takes lessons from many of the other open-world games on this list to make a world full of stuff to do while keeping a sense of hostility thanks to the series' robot dinosaurs.

No Man's Sky

Hello Games

It's almost become a cliche to say it at this point, but No Man's Sky has come a long way since its rough launch in 2016. In 2023 it is easily one of the best survival games out there, with an expansive universe full of sights to see and challenges to overcome. Whether you want to be a nomad explorer or create a place to call home, this game has you covered.