Evolution of Open World Games 1984-2023

1984 Elite
1985 Mercenary
1986 Turbo Esprit
1987 Sid Meier's Pirates
1989 Vette
1990 Terminator
1991 Hunter
1993 Frontier: Elite II
1994 Quarantine
1996 The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
1997 Grand Theft Auto
1998 Mizzurna Falls
1999 Urban Chaos
2000 Shenmue
2001 Grand Theft Auto III
2002 Mafia
2003 Lineage II
2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2004 World of Warcraft
2005 Need for Speed: Most Wanted
2006 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2007 S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
2008 Grand Theft Auto IV
2008 Fallout 3
2009 Prototype
2010 Just Cause 2
2010 Red Dead Redemption
2010 Mafia II
2011 Minecraft
2011 L.A. Noire
2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2012 Sleeping Dogs
2012 Far Cry 3
2013 Saints Row IV
2013 Grand Theft Auto V
2013 Assassins creed 4: Black Flag
2014 Infamous Second Son
2014 Sunset Overdrive
2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
2015 Dying Light
2016 Tom Clancy's The Division
2016 No Man’s Sky
2016 Watch Dogs 2
2017 Horizon Zero Dawn
2017 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2017 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
2018 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
2018 Forza Horizon 4
2018 Red Dead Redemption 2
2019 Days Gone
2019 Death Stranding
2020 Ghost of Tsushima
2020 Microsoft Flight Simulator
2020 Cyberpunk 2077
2021 Riders Republic
2021 Forza Horizon 5
2022 Horizon Forbidden West


Special thanks to World of Longplays (https://longplays.org) and Joy Of Gaming (shorturl.at/yADE3) for providing the gameplay footage

Nixian Channel Description:

We’re lifelong video game enthusiasts with a passion for showing the world how our favorite hobby has grown with us, from individual series to industry-wide retrospectives.

We put significant time and creative effort into each one of our videos, including research, digging into archives, recording voiceovers, and editing. Every video takes as many as 10 hours to produce, because we strive to give our fans consistent, high-quality content.

Our popular “Evolution of...” series goes far beyond simply presenting gameplay footage. We take the time to show how a video game property — its gameplay, character designs, graphics, sound direction, etc. — have evolved over time. We include unique voiceover work on each video to enhance the viewing experience.

People have been playing video games for decades. In that time, we’ve gone from moving a white line up and down to block a moving pixel, to participating in full-fledged, painstakingly rendered real-time battles with people all over the world. We help older gamers look back on how these experiences have changed throughout their lives, and new gamers to understand the broader context of the series they’re playing for the first time today.
The video game medium never stops growing, and we’ll never stop chronicling its evolution.
Editing and voice-over were made by me.