Is Elden Ring still the benchmark for open world game design or has something surpassed it?

[Emma92]

Elden Ring won Game of the Year in 2022 and its influence on open world design has been significant in the years since. The combination of genuine exploration reward, environmental storytelling, brutal but fair difficulty and the absence of handholding set a new standard. In 2024 and 2025 a number of major open world games released. In 2026 we have Crimson Desert, Gothic Remake and several others. Does anything released in the past two years match it or does Elden Ring still sit at the top?

[Cole_55]

Elden Ring changed what I expect from open world games and everything since has been measured against it. The specific thing it did that others still have not replicated is making exploration feel genuinely dangerous and genuinely rewarding simultaneously

[Patrick94]

Crimson Desert from Pearl Abyss has the production values and the combat ambition but it has not been reviewed yet as of June 2026. Everything shown in trailers suggests it might genuinely compete. Will reserve judgement

[EventHorizon25]

The problem with other open world games post-Elden Ring is that they have tried to adopt the exploration model without adopting the difficulty model. The tension between discovery and danger is what makes the reward feel earned. A gentle open world with Elden Ring aesthetics is just a pretty map

[QuantumToken57]

Black Myth: Wukong in 2024 was the other major FromSoft-adjacent release and it was excellent but it is a linear experience disguised as open world. Different category

[GoldbergFan86]

The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC set a new benchmark for paid expansion content and gave Elden Ring at least another year of being the conversation. No other game in the genre has produced DLC at that quality level since

[RomanReigns]

Gothic Remake being out now in June 2026 is interesting because the original Gothic had a genuinely different approach to world design than anything FromSoft makes. More organic NPC schedules and world systems. Whether the remake captures that or becomes another imitation is the question