Crimson Desert's DLC has more than doubled the size of its map, oh god

Crimson Desert already had enough countryside to lose an entire weekend in, but Pearl Abyss has apparently decided that wasn't quite sufficient, with all that its new DLC has added to the game.

The game's first paid expansion, Charting The Unknown, landed on 29 October (after a slight delay) and opens up the Great Ocean of Pywel, stretching far beyond the original coastline. It's not simply a handful of extra islands either, with the amount of new space available leaving some players staring at their maps in disbelief.

Considering the fact that many of already spent many hours in Pywel without making much progress beyond Hernand, that's quite something.

Crimson Desert's new DLC map is absolutely enormous

The DLC allows players to establish new strongholds across Pywel's islands (YouTube/PlayStation)

According to reports, the ocean added to Crimson Desert through Charting The Unknown covers more than twice the area of the original continent alone.

As noted by, Sportskeeda, the base game's mainland is estimated at roughly 200 square kilometres, with about 150 square KM of that being explorable.

With community estimations like that of Hobby Consolas, however, Charting The Unknown’s map appears to make the new total map size more than twice what it was before — by adding tons of additional terrain both north and south of the base map, along with the ginormous Pywel ocean.

Players have been truly baffled

Players can explore submerged ruins and discover hidden treasures across Pywel's ocean (YouTube/PlayStation)

That sentiment’s been well and truly noted in other fan reactions, like on a recent Reddit post. Said post, showing the expansion's huge new map dwarfing the original’s, prompted thousands of upvotes, with one player writing: “Based on the map size, this feels 2.5x larger than before.”

Another reacted: “That's more ocean than there is of the god damn continent. I'm never gonna finish this game, ever.”

That isn't merely decorative blue space. Players can sail between islands, investigate underwater ruins and collect treasure, with sharks available as mounts for travelling below the surface.

There's also a pirate-related questline off Delesiya which unlocks shipbuilding, and players can establish island strongholds. Diving equipment can extend the time spent underwater, while a separate ocean-focused storyline becomes available after the 'Howling Hill' section.

The new sea has already drawn comparisons with other seafaring games. One commenter joked: “It's the freaking Wind Waker/AC Black Flag now, can't complain though.”

However, not everyone is convinced a larger map necessarily means a better one. As another response put it: “It's just water with small islands. Don't want to be that guy, but it's okay lol.”

It’s also been suggested that Pywel may now exceed the expected size of GTA VI's monstrous map, with Sportskeeda also noting that community estimations put the Grand Theft Auto sequel at around 150 to 160 square kilometres in total. That said, neither Rockstar nor Pearly Abyss have confirmed the total map sizes of their game at this time.

Crimson Desert’s Charting The Unknown is available to buy now on PS5 (£19.99 in the UK, $24.99 in the US), Xbox (£19.99 in the UK, $24.99 in the US), and PC (£19.99/$24.99 on Steam).