By Vlad Mazanko
The open-world genre continues to thrive, constantly offering fresh settings, unique destinations, and a promise of an epic adventure where players take a central role in the narrative. Some of the most anticipated games as of today are open-world titles, even though some games are still pretty far away from launching. Nevertheless, fans of adventures in vast worlds full of freedom always have new games to choose from and sink hundreds of hours into.
Throughout 2026, almost every month has several big open-world titles coming up, and many are long-awaited big releases from well-known developers, promising to shake things in the genre quite a bit. Let's take a look at the biggest upcoming open-world games that focus on adventure, letting the players decide where and when to go — but always placing them at the very center of the most exciting stories and events.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin
Kicking the Year With a Colorful Blast
Unlike most other entries here, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is coming very soon, standing among the first big open-world action adventures of the year — and what's even better, it's a completely free title. Just like Where Winds Meet before it, which already became a huge success with over 10 million players, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin can be played as a solo title with a traditional narrative, or in four-player co-op to prioritize the game's other features like robust action and sandbox exploration. Regardless of one's choice, The Seven Deadly Sins provides a vibrant open world of Britannia to explore, faithfully brought to life to capture the pillars of the original manga universe and Netflix anime.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin instantly captivates with its beautiful visuals and colorful landscapes. Playing as Prince Tristan of the Kingdom of Liones, players are taken into a sprawling adventure through space and time to restore order in the kingdom. While epic battles are definitely on the menu, there's much more to it beyond combat, as players can hunt for lost treasures, go fishing, cooking, and crafting, meet other characters and help with their quests, tame, collect, and ride various mounts, and even become the captains of their own customizable ship to sail towards new horizons.
Crimson Desert
A Possible New Benchmark
Undoubtedly, Crimson Desert is among the most hyped releases of the first quarter of 2026. After spending years in the making, the team at Pearl Abyss is gearing up to release its colossal open-world action-adventure title, promising to deliver a scope that players haven't seen for quite some time. Seemingly taking inspiration from every beloved open-world title of the last decade, from The Witcher 3 to Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Legend of Zelda, Crimson Desert looks completely irresistible, brimming with gameplay mechanics and wild possibilities.
In Crimson Desert, players can freely explore the vast and dangerous continent of Pywel, filled with mystery and discovery, playing as Kliff of the Greymane on his epic adventure to avenge his fallen comrades. While the central narrative seems to be important in Crimson Desert, with a sprawling, cinematic story, multitude of characters, and cutscenes, it's the world and the combat that stand out the most so far. On their quest, players can do what they want, pursuing side quests, hunting, gathering, crafting, exploring, partaking in large-scale battles and one-on-one duels, and much more. The cherry on top: players can discover mystical gates all across Pywel to access the mysterious realm known as the Abyss to uncover its secrets.
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
Relive the Legend of Brick-Built Gotham
LEGO games have long established their own niche, growing in scope, ambition, and quality with each new installment. This is exactly what makes LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight so exciting, as the game could become the essential Batman action-packed adventure story that DC fans haven't seen for quite some time. With its open-world Gotham City to experience, including iconic landmarks such as Arkham Asylum, Ace Chemicals, and Wayne Tower, LEGO Batman aims to capture everything that makes Batman so special and beloved, coupled with the signature brick charm.
Legacy of the Dark Knight features the entire story of Bruce Wayne on his journey to become the city's protector, as he forges bonds with trusted allies while facing the most iconic super-villains from comic books and movies. Players start from the League of Shadows' training, before establishing their Batman lair and getting access to a full range of Batmobiles and Batcycles, alongside other gadgets to freely glide and grapple around the layered city. LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight lets players approach combat and investigations as they want, blending robust action combat with fluid combos, stealth techniques, and detective skills in the vein of Batman: Arkham titles.
Subnautica 2
Dangerous Depths Ahead
After some turbulence last year, including the large-scale process between Krafton leadership and Unknown Worlds Entertainment developers, Subnautica 2 is finally poised for an early access launch this year, so hopefully, there is nothing but calm seas ahead for its fans. Following the groundbreaking original that all but became the fan-favorite sea survival and exploration game for millions, Subnautica 2 sets out to expand on everything, delivering an immersive underwater adventure that players can play alone or with friends — exploring new biomes and mysterious ruins, discovering fascinating creatures, crafting, building, and surviving.
Set on the all-new mysterious alien ocean world, Subnautica 2 lets players feel like real pioneers of the unknown depths, discovering new lifeforms and gathering samples for study, each potentially unlocking new ways to evolve the character's own genetics to adapt for underwater survival. With the new world, there's a new story to experience, as every new discovery pushes the players deeper into this strange ocean to understand its complexities. On top of that, the devs promise a completely overhauled building system with more options for unique bases and tools at players' disposal.
Fable
May Mark a New Era
Following the delay from its original 2025 date, Fable could end up among the biggest open-world RPG releases of 2026, but fans have seen surprisingly little of the ambitious game that could become the start of a whole new era for Playground Games. Over the years, the devs have been rather secretive about the project, with just small glimpses of its world and gameplay shared. But even as it is, Fable definitely sits rather high on every open-world RPG fan's list, both thanks to the legacy of the original games and the undeniably spectacular footage from the upcoming title.
Fable has always been synonymous with adventure, borrowing the most iconic plots from fairy tales to blend and mix them anew, working the angles through British humor, unexpected resolutions, and at times, thickening colors. So far, it seems that the new Fable will be no different, focusing on silly characters and daily situations, bringing comedic actors to the character roster, and questioning the very essence of being a hero, while also masterfully delivering a serious tone and high-stakes choices when it needs to. Hopefully, the devs will reveal more of the game soon, and the Xbox Developer Direct in January 2026 seems like a good place to finally give the fans the exact release date to mark on their calendars.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
