There’s no question that the worlds of the Fallout games are massive. Players can spend hundreds of hours exploring every nook and cranny of these open world and still not encounter all there is to see. But while the in-game worlds seem large, the maps outlining the area are much, much larger.
This is because while physically walking in the in-game world of say Fallout 4 equals about 900 square miles, the map itself based on real world locations is 10 times that size. So here are all of the Fallout games ranked by how large their maps are when compared to their real-world counterparts.
8 Fallout 3 – 8,462 sq mi
Fallout 3 is the smallest map in the series encompassing most of the areas in and around Washington D.C. This incredibly dense world in-game is surprisingly tiny when compared to the real world. Raven Rock to the outskirts of Washington D.C. is an area roughly 8,462 square miles. Granted this doesn’t include the Mothership Zeta.
It’s evidence of a trend with the Fallout games that smaller can equate to better as developers can flush out the world and pack it with more things to do. Fallout 3 was a significant departure from previous games which were much larger, but many fans consider it a valuable step in the right direction.
7 Fallout New Vegas – 8,502 sq mi
Fallout New Vegas is just slightly larger than Fallout 3 being 8,502 square miles in size. As the title suggests that game world encompasses the area around Las Vegas seeing real world locations like the Hoover Dam, Boulder City, and Black Mountain making an appearance.
This fan favorite of the series sends players to places in Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah. Incredibly touching these four states still makes it the second smallest map in the series. Something players likely would have never believed as they traversed the barren wastes.
6 Fallout 4 – 9,743 sq mi
Fallout 4 was considered massive by many players when it came out and indeed the in-game world is extensive and filled with lots of things to do and see. But the map size of the game makes it the third smallest in the series at 9,743 square miles.
Between the Commonwealth, Nuka World theme park, and Far Harbor’s real life equivalent in the state of Maine it’s definitely larger the previous games, but still a fledgling to the other monsters on this list. Even so it’s considered one of the most populated and in-depth games ever made in the series.
5 Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel – 15,000 sq mi
Some players may not be familiar with this spin off from the main series even though it was the first Fallout game to hit consoles. It was also the first to step away from turn-based combat and embrace the action RPG genre.
This title sends players to the real-world towns of Los Ybanez and Carbon, Texas, Los and Carbon in-game respectively. The real-world location of the Secret Vault is a bit of an unknown, merely identified as somewhere northwest of Carbon. Rough guesses suggest the map of this world depicts a location about 15,000 square miles in size, though this could certainly be off a few hundred square miles.
4 Fallout 76 – 24,038 sq mi
The most recent Fallout title on this list is the notorious online multiplayer Fallout 76. The game takes place mostly within West Virginia with a few spots going outside the state. According to mathematically inclined fans, this makes the map about 24,038 square miles of things players can encounter.
Given Bethesda’s continued updates and additions to the game it’s likely the size of the map is going to increase somewhat over time. It represents the largest map Bethesda has ever created in the series and amazingly still pales in comparison to the ones that came before.
3 Fallout 1 - 60,917 sq mi
The jump from 24,038 square miles to 60,917 square miles is a sizable one and makes the first Fallout the third largest game in the series. Spanning most of southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico this map is massive.
Granted the places the player can actually locate are significantly smaller than what the maps depicts with most of the travel to and from locations being a fast travel loading screen. Still it’s a sizable world with many locations for the player to interact with.
2 Fallout 2 – 126,055 sq mi
It turns out Fallout 2 is about twice the size of Fallout. Clocking in at 126,055 square miles this makes it the second largest map in the series. In this game players will explore northern California, parts of Oregon, and Nevada.
Like the previous game, it’s mostly done through fast travel and the player only sees a small portion of the actual map. Still traveling anywhere takes several in-game days and there’s plenty to see in-game.
1 Fallout Tactics – 304,585 sq mi
Fallout Tactics is easily the largest game map in the Fallout series with a whopping 304,585 square miles of land. That’s nearly three times the size of Fallout 2 and almost twice the size of the cancelled Fallout: Van Buren.
This gargantuan map has Wyoming in the northwest corner, Michigan in the northeast corner, Tennessee in the southeast corner, and New Mexico in the southwest corner. This encompasses about a dozen states. Again, the player will only see the highlights, but this is easily the largest map in the series that likely won’t be surpassed by Bethesda’s tendency to make smaller but richer maps anytime soon.