Developers With The Best Selling Open-World Games Of All Time

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Open-world games are incredibly popular, and many of the best-selling video games ever made fall into this category. Several game developers have become well-known specifically for creating open-world titles, consistently finding new ways to improve the gameplay and inspiring other companies to do the same.

We’re taking a look beyond just the most popular open-world games and focusing on the developers who created them. This helps us recognize the studios with the strongest skills in the genre – the ones consistently delivering hit games that become classics, influence the industry, and keep players engaged for years. Their ongoing success clearly demonstrates their talent.

Mojang Studios

Minecraft – Over 350 Million Copies Sold

Mojang Studios and Minecraft are incredibly unique in the gaming world, currently holding the top position as the best-selling game of all time, across all genres. To illustrate how popular it is, Minecraft has sold as many copies as the combined sales of four of Rockstar’s most successful open-world games. It’s difficult to picture any game surpassing Minecraft’s success, even GTA 6.

Following the huge success of Minecraft, Mojang Studios can simply focus on refining and building upon what already works so well. Recently, they’ve been developing spin-off games like Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends, all of which connect back to the original, incredibly popular open-world sandbox game.

Rockstar Games

GTA 5 – 220 Million, RDR 2 – 79 Million, GTA: SA – 30 Million, GTA 4 – 25 Million

As a gamer, when you think about developers who really change the game, Rockstar Games immediately springs to mind – and for good reason! They practically created the open-world genre as we know it with Grand Theft Auto 3, and they just keep raising the bar. Their games are consistently so much more detailed and immersive than anything else out there; they’re always years ahead of everyone else.

Rockstar Games has a remarkable track record of success, consistently delivering hit games like the classic GTA: San Andreas and GTA 4, as well as more recent titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and the still-popular GTA 5, which continues to be a massive success over a decade after its release. The incredible anticipation for their next game, GTA 6, shows they consistently meet high expectations, and it’s likely to be another groundbreaking experience for players.

CD Projekt Red

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – 60 Million, Cyberpunk 2077 – 35 Million

CD Projekt Red’s journey to success is remarkable, especially considering they’ve only released two large open-world games. They’ve become well-known for immersive, story-focused role-playing games, even surpassing companies like Bethesda. While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a huge hit, Cyberpunk 2077 may have been even more significant, representing a classic story of overcoming challenges to achieve greatness.

After everything that happened with Cyberpunk, and hopefully learning from those experiences, CD Projekt Red is in a really interesting spot right now. They’re working on a bunch of big projects at the same time – including the next Witcher game and a Cyberpunk sequel! Both are massively hyped, and everyone’s waiting to see what they’ll be like. Only time will tell if they can keep the momentum going, but honestly, their ambition is pretty impressive.

Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 35 Million, Tears of the Kingdom – 20 Million

Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development Division hit a major success with 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, creating the most innovative and popular Zelda experience to date. The game sold incredibly well, especially considering it’s only available on Nintendo’s consoles – the Wii U, Switch, and Switch 2. This is particularly noteworthy because Nintendo rarely offers significant discounts on its games.

Nintendo didn’t rest on its success. The follow-up game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, continued the strong performance of the first, showing it wasn’t a fluke. Although Tears of the Kingdom hasn’t sold as many copies as Breath of the Wild yet, the six-year wait between releases likely accounts for that. It will be interesting to see if it eventually matches Breath of the Wild‘s sales numbers.

Avalanche Software

Hogwarts Legacy – Over 34 Million Copies Sold

Avalanche Software might be the least impressive studio on this list. While Hogwarts Legacy was a big hit, much of its success comes from being based on a popular franchise. The game itself isn’t bad – it’s a typical, enjoyable open-world experience – but it doesn’t really offer anything special or captivating enough to draw in players who aren’t already fans of Harry Potter.

Hogwarts Legacy plays it safe as an open-world game. It doesn’t really try anything new, sticking to popular trends, but it does a really good job of bringing the beloved world of Harry Potter to life. For many players, that strong execution and dedication to the source material are enough to make it a great experience.

Bethesda Game Studios

Skyrim – 30+ Million, Fallout 4 – 25 Million, Fallout 76 – 20 Million

Bethesda Game Studios is a legendary name in gaming, known for decades as a leader in creating incredibly popular and impactful open-world role-playing games. What really sets them apart is their consistent dedication to their signature style – prioritizing player freedom and letting people explore and experience their games in any way they choose.

Bethesda has built a lasting reputation, largely thanks to the massive success of Skyrim, which has sold over 30 million copies—and likely even more. But Skyrim isn’t their only hit; games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76 have all been popular. Even their most recent RPG, Starfield, drew in over 15 million players within its first year, despite some mixed reactions. Now, all attention is focused on The Elder Scrolls 6 to see if it can replicate that success.

FromSoftware

Elden Ring – Over 30 Million Copies Sold

Okay, so FromSoftware hadn’t really done a true open-world game before Elden Ring, and it was a huge deal when it finally dropped. Everyone knew combining their tough-but-fair combat with RPG stuff and a massive, open world was a good idea, but honestly, I don’t think anyone predicted just how insanely popular Elden Ring would become. It’s been a massive success!

FromSoftware’s success with Elden Ring has quickly established them as a leading and highly anticipated game developer – as demonstrated by the excitement surrounding The Duskbloods. Now, the challenge for the studio is to prove they can create more incredible games beyond Elden Ring and its related titles, and we’re hoping their future projects will impress.

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2025-12-10 01:06