The world of Sanctuary has always felt massive. Across the Diablo franchise, we’ve explored pieces of it, revisited familiar locations, and heard endless lore about regions we’ve never set foot in—but no single game has ever shown us the whole thing. With Diablo 4’s Lord of Hatred expansion on the horizon and players finally heading to Skovos for the first time, it raises a big question: will Diablo 4 eventually take us across all of Sanctuary?
The Whole of Sanctuary
Diablo 4 already boasts one of the largest maps in the series’ history. From the deserts of the Dry Steppes to the frozen peaks of Fractured Peaks, there’s no shortage of ground to cover. Even so, players have started to wonder if this is just the beginning, or if Blizzard plans to push the map even further outward.
As of now, only an estimated 30–40% of Sanctuary is actually playable. Entire regions still sit beyond the current borders, with the Skovos Isles lying just beneath the existing map. That opens the door to a lot of possibilities. Will future expansions keep pushing west into unexplored territory, or will Blizzard focus on fleshing out what’s already here? Both paths bring exciting opportunities, new lands to discover or deeper dives into familiar regions, but they also come with some real concerns.
Too Big to Travel?
Since launch, Diablo 4 has drawn criticism for how small its world can feel. Compared to older, hand-drawn maps of Sanctuary, the in-game world can feel surprisingly small. You can ride across entire zones on horseback in just a few minutes, which slightly undercuts how massive the world is supposed to be.
If Diablo 4 eventually includes all of Sanctuary, does that mean players could ride from Kyovashad to Mount Arreat in no time at all? In older Diablo titles, the world felt enormous largely because travel took time. The long journeys sold the idea that Sanctuary was vast and dangerous. So is Diablo 4 shrinking the world for gameplay’s sake, or has Sanctuary always been this compact, and earlier games simply implied more distance than actually existed?
Or maybe the Dark Wanderer just never thought to use a horse.
Gameplay vs. Reality
Map size aside, many players would gladly return to the western kingdoms, especially Tristram. In earlier games, Tristram felt isolated and mysterious, like just one small piece of a much larger, unseen world. The events there carried weight because they felt distant and contained.
But if those same locations were dropped into Diablo 4’s open world, would we be able to sprint through the settings of the first three games in minutes? Would that make Sanctuary feel smaller than ever, or simply more honest?
At the end of the day, Diablo 4 sits at a crossroads between gameplay convenience and world-building scale. Expanding Sanctuary sounds incredible, but how Blizzard handles that expansion may define how large or small the world ultimately feels.
