The Longest Running Open-World Game Franchises

Important takeaways

• The
  Forza Horizon
  series evolved from race track to urban streets, with different locations and crazy challenges.
• The
  Driver
  series stood out with immersive 3D action but faltered in later entries, losing the open-world format in 2011.
• The
  Far Cry
  The franchise pioneered open-world FPS, but the formula may get old for some fans despite rich game worlds.

Developers have been trying to give players open worlds to roam since the arcade days. This has been achieved in several ways, from first-person adventure to top-down exploration, be it in 2D or 3D. Some games have pushed the genre forward through a handful of entries. Others have been doing it for decades and become some of them oldest open world game franchise.

To determine which franchises have run the longest, this list comes with a few rules. Each series must have at least five entries (so no Addition or Prototype). It also starts with the first open-world game in the series, so the first farcry, is a standard FPS, does not count, but Far cry 2 do that, so the run starts with that game. Then it wraps up with their latest games, including confirmed sequels in development.

10 Forza Horizon

Racing free for 9 years

• First game:Forza Horizon (2012).
• Last game:Forza Horizon 5 (2021).

Spinning off from Forza Motorsport series, Forza Horizon took their cars off the racetrack and onto the streets. Players had to battle traffic and other racers to pull off enough stunts, complete enough activities, and win enough races to advance in the Horizon Festival. The more popular they become, the more challenges and events they can unlock, including racing against airplanes and helicopters.

Since its inception, the series has allowed players to race around all sorts of locations, from fictional recreations of Colorado and Australia to realistic depictions of the French Riviera and Edinburgh, Scotland. All has been quiet since the release Forza Horizon 5 2021, but with its success, it's hard to imagine the series will be dormant for long.

9 Driver

Stuck in the pits after 12 years of driving

• First game: Driver (1999).
• Last game:Driver: Renegade (2011).

Everyone knows that today Grand Theft Auto hit it big, but its success was not always guaranteed. The first two top-down 2D games looked ancient next to it Driver. It lets the player drive around recreations in Miami, San Francisco, LA, and New York (and Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the PC version) freely, pulling off various road-based jobs for one NPC or another. If they got past the surprisingly difficult tutorial, that is.

The action was behind the wheel, in advance and in full 3D. Driver 2 enhanced by traveling internationally, visiting Havana and Rio de Janeiro and allowing the player to get out of the car to find other vehicles. But the series lost its mojo just when it was rushed and buggy Drive3r came out and became a fiasco instead of a forerunner. Despite its improved sequels, they were not enough to keep the series going in an open-ended format after 2011.

8 Far Cry

Doing the same thing over and over for 13 years

• First Open World game: Far cry 2 (2008).
• Last game: Far cry 6 (2021).

The original Far Cry from 2004 was open, but not really open world, as it lacked side activities, and its console version, Far Cry: Instincts, was even more linear. So, Far cry 2 stripped away the fleets and let players wander all over its African game world, giving them plenty of side objectives to complete alongside the main quests.

It has since become the premier open-world first-person shooter, letting players blast it out from the tropical jungle to the woods of Montana. Fixed after Far cry 3 caught with its acting and charming, sociopathic villains, there are some fans who feel that every sequel has followed the same formula. It may not be broken, although it may be worn out, and those fans are getting more tired of this series.

7 Saints Row

From gangster to goof in 16 years

• First game: Saints Row (2006).
• Last game: Saints Row (2022).

As the opening to Saints Row 4 suggests that Volition's series was seen as a “singer of thrones”. The first game, Saints Rowwas seen as a decent GTA the clone that can keep players busy until it's real GTA came to the then next generation consoles. Then, when some of them did not like GTA 4s sour narrative direction, the wilder, more wacky Saints Row 2 was there to take them back. Then Volition turned up the crazy dial Saints Row the third.

The game traded the gangster edge and creative options for murder-based game shows and suspiciously shaped bats. Saint's Row 4 went even further by throwing superpowers, aliens and dubstep guns into the mix. The 2022 reboot tried to put the series back together, but without the edge or the craziness, it became a bland experience at best and an annoying one at worst, thanks to its boring characters. It's a sad note for the series to end on.

6 Assassin's Creed

18 years of murder

• First game:Assassin's Creed (2007).
• Last game: Assassin's Creed: Shadows (delayed to February 2025).

If Far Cry is the definitive open world FPS, and Forza Horizon the ultimate open world racer, the Assassin's Creed game is the definitive historical open-world series. It has an overarching plot involving the present, shady corporations, and futuristic sci-fi technology, though they're background dressing compared to the series' main settings.

Whether players control Altair, Ezio, Edward Kenway or others, the games have always been about sneaking past enemies and parkouring over obstacles to assassinate key targets or complete other objectives. The Assassin's Creed games have replicated Renaissance Italy and Dark Ages England in rich detail, making them as much a joy to explore as the game itself. Next match, Assassin's Creed Shadowsaims to do the same with Sengoku-era Japan via its new leads, Yasuke and Naoe.

5 Dead Rising

18 years of undead fun

• First game: Dead Rising (2006).
• Last game: Dead Rising: Deluxe Remaster (2024).

If Deluxe Remaster had not come out, it Dead Rising the series would be 8 years shorter. The original game curbed the player's temptations to race around the Williamette Mall, slaughtering zombies with makeshift weapons, by giving them tight time management-based objectives and survivors to rescue. If they didn't complete them in time, they would end up with one of the game's bad endings.

The sequels changed settings and protagonists, which Dead Rising 2s Chuck Greene and Dead Rising 3is Nick Ramos. But that was it Dead Rising 4s return to Frank West and Williamette that ended the series, as its faltering sales put an end to its developer, Capcom Vancouver. The Deluxe Remaster is now trying to revive the series with some quality of life improvements, and judging by the reception, it's working well.

4 Yakuza/Like A Dragon

Go from strength to strength for 20 years

• First game: Yakuza (2005).
• Last game: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (February 2025).

The Yakuza/Like a Dragon the series has had an interesting life. It spent half its life as a hit in Japan, but as a cult classic in the West, where it barely held up sales-wise for Sega to bother localizing the series. Yakuza 5 it took three years to reach the West, and even then it was a digital release.

Then Yakuza 0 was released, with Atlus localizing the proceedings, and the series suddenly became a hit. The older games were re-released, remastered and re-localized for modern systems, producing a new legion of fans that made it a global success in the latter half of its life. The newer mainline games are RPGs, but the brawling, open-ended gameplay still lives on Like A Dragon: IshinA, Like a dragon Gaidenand Judgment game.

3 Grand Theft Auto

A 28 year long Joyride

• First game: Grand Theft Auto (1997).
• Last game:Grand Theft Auto 6 (planned for 2025).

Yakuzas flagging early years were not helped by its promotion as a Grand Theft Auto clone in the wake of games that True crime and The mafiawhen it's more like Shenmue. The reason for GTA clones captured were due to GTA himself practically reinvented the genre in his own image. Players enjoyed roaming cities and wreaking havoc, and they wanted more of that experience.

Like I said, it took a while GTA 3 for the series to capture it, as it brought the experience to life in full, proper 3D. The first two games offered the same mayhem and courted deliberate controversy with its carnage, but they were 2D, top-down, and much more clunky experiences. In 3D, GTA was much more manageable, and it became the benchmark against which other open-world crime-based games were measured.

32 years of imagination

• First game: The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994).
• Last game:The Elder Scrolls 6 (planned for 2026).

After 13 years of updating, expanding and adjusting Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls the series will finally move on to its sixth main game… eventually. The tentatively named The Elder Scrolls 6 is earmarked for a 2026 release, perhaps making it the next highly anticipated game after the equally anticipated GTA 6. However, THESIS beat GTA to the punch by making Tamriel open world in its first outing, The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Well, to a certain extent anyway.

The world was procedurally generated, so players had to use fast travel to go from town to town, or they would wander the wilderness for an eternity. But they can still play side missions while tackling the main dungeons and grappling with the game's day/night cycle, where monsters rise as the sun sets. It was a huge world to explore, and it's only gotten bigger since then through its many sequels.

1 The Legend of Zelda

A legend 38 years in the making

• First game: The Legend of Zelda (1986).
• Last game: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024).

The Legend of Zelda? Open world? Even before Breath of the Wild and The tears of the kingdom? Yes, yes. Even the top-down games allow players to progress at their own pace, choosing which dungeon to tackle first, which secrets to look for, and which quests to take on. That has been the formula for every game in the series since then, even the CD-I games.

if anything, The Legend of Zelda set the template for modern open-world 3D games via Ocarina of time. From its side quests and upgrades to its collectibles and mini-games, the series' DNA can be seen in the other entries on this list and beyond. It may also be the reason it has endured for so long, that it appeals to each generation with each step forward it has taken.