After the enormous map for Grand Theft Auto V leaked online, the Internet has had a ball geeking out on the render of Los Santos and Blaine Counties. The geography is based on the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, but to give you an idea for how big the city really is in real life , Reddit user fakeitlikeyoumakeit took the Google Maps of other major cities and scaled them to GTA 5 proportions.
It’s funny how the weird world of games alters your perspective, huh? By the standards of Liberty City from GTA 4, Los Santos looks positively massive. But scaled to the size of cities we all navigate daily, the world doesn’t seem as enormous as it does when you’re lost in the game’s mayhem. In terms of sheer land area, Manhattan and San Francisco are pretty small towns.
Consider this comparison, courtesy of Canadian correspondent Andrew L. of the actual landmass of Toronto with the red-shaded area that represents the slice covered by the GTA 5 map:
One of the largest maps ever made for a game doesn’t quite compare to what we’ve been able to create in real life. But damn, it’s still impressive. [Reddit via Google Maps Mania]