WhenNo Man’s Skyfirst appeared and started getting public attention, it was a clear attempt to deliver one of the most immersive spacefaring games to date. The concept sounded likeMinecraftin space, and in many ways, that’s exactly what it is.No Man’s Skyoffers players a ton of creative freedom in charting and modifying the galaxy as they explore it, building anything they want so long as they have the resources. One major way thatNo Man’s Skyintends to wrap players up in the astronaut life is by delivering a truly huge universe to explore. Five years after its launch, it’s still hard to believe exactly how huge theNo Man’s Skyuniverse is.
Procedural generation of the world is another thingNo Man’s Skyshares withMinecraft.However, unlikeMinecraft’s wholly random individual worlds,Hello Games' simulated universe actually has a pretty good picture of how many planets there are inNo Man’s Sky, and it’s a staggering amount. There are over 18 quintillion planets in theNo Man’s Skyuniverse – to be precise, there are 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 fully fleshed-out worlds that anyone in the game can find and explore, and they’re all very reasonably to scale with real planets.
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The Incredible Scale of No Man’s Sky
It’s frankly hard to describe just how many planets that is. One good way of thinking of it is in reference to our actual planet: if every single person on Earth playedNo Man’s Skyand the game’s planets were all distributed evenly, every person on earth would get more than 2 billion planets all to themselves inNo Man’s Sky.That’s a truly endless amount of terrain to explore and customize and explore to every player’s will, and easily too much for any one person to thoroughly explore in one lifetime.IfNo Man’s Sky’s servers go offline someday, the vast majority of its universe will probably still be completely untouched.
WhenNo Man’s Skywas first made public, Hello Games explained that while the game was technically multiplayer, odds were good that players could go through the whole game without ever running into each other just because of its massive scale. Looking at the numbers proves that Hello Games wasn’t joking. It’s veryeasy for aNo Man’s Skyplayerto choose a corner of the universe and make it entirely their own, diligently building up whatever they want for their own enjoyment without worrying about coming across other players.
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No Man’s Sky is Worth Living In
The real value of the universe inNo Man’s Skydoesn’t come from the sheer number of planets, though. Its value stems from the content that Hello Games has diligently added to the game over the years. Each planet out of the 18 quintillion is filled to the brim with engaging objectives, valuable resources, and environmental details that make every planet unique. AlthoughNo Man’s Skyhad a famously rocky launch, Hello Games' humble response and persistent work afterwards havemadeNo Man’s Skyalmost unrecognizablefrom its near-total lack of content at launch.
Hello Games' work on the whole ofNo Man’s Skyis what makes the quintillions of planets really worth it. There’s an endless list of possible worlds that players can find inNo Man’s Sky, which is exactly the kind of game players were hoping for when it first game out. The survival game’s universe is still expanding, sometimes getting billions more planets in updates, which servers as a good reminder that there’s no wayNo Man’s Skyfanswill ever totally chart the game’s universe. It’s arguably the best simulation of outer space out there, if only for its faithfulness to outer space’s incredible size. Considering how many planets the game has to offer, there’s always another adventure around the corner inNo Man’s Sky.
No Man’s Skyis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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