Welcome The Next Big Open-World RPGs

Open-world action-RPGs are one of the most dominant genres in modern gaming, with dozens of big games releasing every year. Just in 2025, fans got Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ghost of Yotei, Where Winds Meet, Borderlands 4, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, and many more. These titles offer vast worlds to explore, robust RPG mechanics, exciting combat, and hundreds of hours’ worth of playtime, meaning fans can expect to stay engaged for weeks no matter their choice of game.

2026 is already packed with promising open-world role-playing games of various scopes and scales. As the development process becomes longer overall, though, most publishers no longer reveal release windows unless they are absolutely sure the game is ready to hit them. As such, the majority of the most anticipated games expected to release throughout 2026 still don’t have exact release dates as of now. Players shouldn’t worry too much, though, as even the first months of 2026 will have several open-world RPGs launching, granting plenty of options to pick and enjoy. Below are the next big open-world RPGs coming before April 2026, ranked by the nearest release date.

Hytale

Release Date: January 13, 2026 (Early Access)

Minecraft fans have long been waiting for Hytale, an intriguing voxel-based open-world sandbox game with an identical visual style to Mojang’s classic, but aiming to embrace more in-depth RPG mechanics. After almost being canceled, Hytale is finally launching in Early Access in just a few weeks, promising to be one of the major game releases of January 2026. Due to its Early Access status, Hytale won’t offer everything teased by the devs out of the gate, and will focus on core systems like unrestricted exploration, responsive combat, and flexible building. The initial goal is to offer a more robust version of Minecraft or Roblox, married with traditional open-world RPGs akin to Skyrim.

Set in a procedurally generated fantasy world full of dungeons, secrets, and a variety of creatures to fight, Hytale will have a dedicated story mode for adventure lovers who find Minecraft a bit too freeform to their liking. Hytale is directly aimed at those who seek deeper survival mechanics and a lore-rich world with various factions, a weapon and magic system to rival traditional open-world RPGs, and more, while still preserving the expansive creative tools that allow them to shape the world around them block by block, create custom content like unique mini-games, and run dedicated community servers with specific rules for friends.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin

Release Date: January 28, 2026

Like this year’s Where Winds Meet, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin seems like a new must-play open-world action RPG for any fan of the genre who isn’t yet tired of the similar visual aesthetics of gacha-influenced games. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin launches as a completely free title across PC, PS5, and mobile, and offers a cross-platform journey that can be experienced either in four-player co-op or entirely as a single-player title with a traditional narrative, so there is no reason not to at least give this one a go. Set in the already recognizable universe of Seven Deadly Sins (with over 50 million manga sales), players can explore a colorful open-world Britannia faithfully recreated from the original Netflix anime.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin seemingly takes lessons from other free-to-play open-world gacha games like Genshin Impact and its follow-ups that have made quite a splash on the market during the past few years. Featuring beautiful visuals, breathtaking landscapes, and charming characters, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origins is as combat-focused as it is about quiet moments of peace and leisure. Players can not only engage in exciting real-time battles, leading a team of diverse heroes with unique abilities, but also hunt for treasures and secrets, go fishing or cooking, and meet and help other characters.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties

Release Date: February 11, 2026

Yakuza (or Like a Dragon) is one of the most extensive open-world series of the past years, with new entries releasing regularly but still managing to feel fresh, distinct, and wild in the best sense of the word. While Yakuza games typically walk the thin line between action-adventure games and RPGs, all set in relatively compact but dense open-world environments, every new title can be easily recommended to fans looking for a fun game with a sprawling campaign and dozens of memorable activities.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is shaping up to be a perfect example of that. What’s most curious is that it’s actually a bundle of two separate games being sold as one. The first part is described by the devs as an “extreme remake” of the original Yakuza 3, with Kazuma Kiryu returning as the main character, while Dark Ties is a brand-new Yakuza game featuring a new protagonist, Yoshitaka Mine, a major character from Yakuza 3. Both will walk their own path in the bustling streets of Okinawa and Tokyo as fans enjoy cinematic visuals, brutal brawling action, and even more depth and emotion that they have grown used to in the series over the years.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

Release Date: March 13, 2026

Following Monster Hunter Wilds, the iconic series isn’t ready for a break just yet, with monster-taming spin-off Twisted Reflection coming just a year after the previous mainline installment. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection emphasizes big open-world maps built like an outdoor adventure course, with free exploration and robust RPG mechanics. Players can tame and ride various iconic monsters (known as Monsties), including majestic flying beasts, and lead them into deep turn-based combat revolving around the familiar rock-paper-scissors approach.

The first thing to surely catch one’s eye is the game’s bright, vivid cel-shaded visuals that stand in stark contrast to the more realistic-looking mainline games. Twisted Reflection’s new visual style and the turn-based nature of the action aside, it’s the same Monster Hunter experience that players all around the world know and love, featuring not just hunts but collecting materials, forging gear, exploring the world, and completing side stories and other optional activities. Just for reference, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin offered 60 to over 100 hours of content, so players can expect a comparable length from its upcoming successor.

Crimson Desert

Release Date: March 20, 2026

After all the hype it has generated over the years, Crimson Desert needs little introduction today, standing as one of the most anticipated games of the first half of 2026. After years in development, an enormous scope, unbound ambitions, and a classic open-world action-RPG formula that emphasizes freedom, player choices and their consequences, a sense of epic journey, and exciting action all but guarantee Crimson Desert’s success. The wait is almost over, as the game is releasing in just a few months.

With a notable lack of competition in its area so far, Crimson Desert is poised to attract a massive audience, as every player may find something to be drawn to in the project. The devs packed so many mechanics, activities, and interconnected systems into the game, and have been generously showing them to the public throughout the past year, that it’s easy to stay excited. From epic boss battles against monsters of all shapes and sizes akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, to fully-fledged castle sieges, intricate traversal options, freeform medieval activities, a reactive world and NPCs, and the personal journey of the Greymane Kliff and his allies across the vast continent of Pywel, Crimson Desert seems to be brimming with content to keep open-world enthusiasts occupied for weeks if not months.