Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas has officially started sailing, so now is a good time to revisit our the Largest Cruise Ship list and the Largest Ships List. In this post we will focus on the largest ships in the in world. This list includes both cruise ships, oil tankers, and any other commercial vessel. Unlike past lists, I will be a bit more specific and require any ships on this list to be self-propelling. This means it must have a way to operate under their own power and not require tugs to help move it. Therefore any offshore installation, FPSO, will not be on the list. And also to make this list more diverse, we will be lumping classes of ships together. In very recent years, due to the increase in exports from China, there has been a significant increase in the number of large container ships being built (think 12 identical sisters. And people harp on the cruise industry for similar things). Similar to what we saw in the 90 and 00’s in the cruise industry, all the major container lines are outdoing each other and building incrementally larger ships.

403,342gt | 50,000dwt | 1,253ft LOA | 406ft Beam

The Pioneering Spirit remains the largest ship in the world. Owned and operated by the Dutch company AllSeas, she’s considered a pipe-laying and platform-removal ship. That last part is easily the most interesting. She has the ability to remove the entire superstructure of an oil platform, in it’s entirety, all at once. With her unique ‘U’ shaped bow she straddles the platform and then lifts it off of the bottom supporting structure, or jacket. The jacket is then lifted with her aft crane. It’s pretty impressive. Construction wise, she is basically two vessels welded together with a platform in between. This creates huge amounts of internal volume to add to her gross tonnage. You can check her out in action here.

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248,663gt | 15,132dwt | 1,196ft LOA | 159ft Beam

The Icon of the Seas is a new addition to the list and comes in at the second largest ship in the world. She is about as much of a technological marvel and an incredible feat of marine engineering as it gets. The first of it’s kind for Royal Caribbean, she just started sailing in 2024.

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236,857gt | 17,100dwt | 1,187ft LOA | 156ft Beam

When launched in 2022, the Wonder of the Seas became the worlds largest cruise ship. She was originally going to sail in China but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her deployment got changed to North America. She represents a new ‘Oasis-plus’ type of design with her most striking feature being a remodel of her top decks. The enclosure of the Solarium increases her gross tonnage.

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236,638gt | 441,893dwt | 1246ft LOA | 223ft Beam

FSO Asia (ex-Hellespont Alhambra, TI Asia) is a Floating Storage Tanker anchored at the Al Shaheen Terminal in the Persian Gulf. She was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding of South Korea in 2002 for the Greek tanker firm Hellespont. Total cost for the vessel was $90 million. She was sold to Euronav in 2004, and then sold again to OSG in 2011. She was then finally sold to her current owner International Seaways. The vessel currently is being operated by a joint venture of International Seaways and Euronav. Her charter hire as of 2022 was roughly $88,000/day.

During a drydock she had her superstructure modified as she was transitioning over to become a floating storage and offloading vessel. That’s why she’s roughly 2,000gt larger than two of her other sisters.

FSO Africa(ex-Hellespont Metropolis, TI Africa) is also a Floating Storage Tanker anchored in the Northfield section of the Al Shaheen Terminal in the Persian Gulf. Sistership to the FSO Asia (#2 above) she was also built at Daewoo Shipbuilding and launched in 2002 for the same price of $90 million. Originally called the Hellespont Metropolis, Hellespont sold her to OSG in 2005 who then sold her to Euronav. Like her sister above, she has the same ownership structure. Also like the FSO Asia, a drydock in 2010 altered her superstructure, slightly enlarging it.

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236,583gt | 221,251dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

French container giant CMA-CGM launched a fleet of 9 container ships starting in 2020. These massive ships are powered by LNG and can carry a whopping 23,112 TEU containers.

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235,597gt | 224,999dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

Taiwanese container giant Evergreen launched a fleet of 13 container ships starting in 2021. These ships can each carry 23,992 TEU containers. More than the large Jacques-Sadee class above. The ninth ship to launch is called the Ever Alot, which is almost a meme name.

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234,006gt | 441,585dwt | 1246ft LOA | 223ft Beam

Oceania (ex-Hellespont Fairfax, Overseas Laura Lynn, TI Oceania) is a Crude Oil Tanker currently anchored off Malaysia. Sistership to the two ships above she was also constructed at Daewoo Shipbuilding and launched in 2003 for the same price of $90 million. Originally called the Hellespont Fairfax, the company sold her to OSG in 2005. She then went over to Euronav after a stint a Tankers International, and now Euronav outright own and operate her. Hellespont Fairfax was featured on the Discover Channel’s Superships.

TI Europe(ex-Hellespont Tara) is a Crude Oil Tanker currently anchored off of Malaysia, just north of Singapore. The the 4th and last sister to the 3 above (FSO Asia, FSO Africa and Overseas Laura Lynn). She was built at Daewoo Shipbuilding and launched in 2002 for the same price of $90 million. Originally called the Hellespont Tara, Hellespont sold her to Euronav in 2004 and she was re-flagged in Belgium. Euronav fully own and operate her.

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232,618gt | 254,042dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

Mediterranean Shipping Company, a sister company of MSC Cruises, is actually the worlds largest container line. Headquartered in land-locked Switzerland, the Italian family owned company owns and operates a jaw-dropping 790 ships throughout it’s fleets. At the top are the Gülsün-class container ships. These 16 ships were built at two separate yards in Korea in order to speed up their delivery. The larger of the two can hold 23,756 TEU containers. 

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228,283gt | 232,606dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 200ft Beam

Korea based Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) are also in the mix of having some of the worlds largest container ships. The fleet of 12 were all delivered in in 2020 to take advantage of the increase in consumer purchasing starting in 2019. As with the above MSC class, the HMM Algeciras-class were built in two separate yards in Korea. Each ship can hold 23,964 TEU containers, slightly more than the above larger ships from MSC. 

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228,081gt | 18,095dwt | 1,187ft LOA | 215ft Beam

When she set sail in 2018, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas had then become the largest cruise ship in the world (only recently surpassed by the above Wonder of the Seas and Icon of the Seas). Symphony is more closely related to her identical sister, the #11 Harmony of the Seas. The Symphony can carry around 39 more passengers and thusly has a slightly redesigned superstructure. This leads to a larger gross tonnage, making her slightly larger that her below identical sibling.

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226,963gt | 20,236dwt | 1,188ft LOA | 217ft Beam

I added one extra so we can talk about the Harmony of the Seas. When she set sail in 2016, the Royal Caribbean ship had then become the largest cruise ship at the time, surpassing the Allure of the Seas. In thw mid to late 2010’s, these ships were much higher up on this list, however as you can see, the recent increase in container ships has tended to push most of the cruise ships further down on these world rankings. The Harmony of the Seas was the first of the Oasis-class to be built in France. Royal Caribbean took this opportunity to slightly, and subtly, redesign a few features so the Harmony, and her above sister Symphony, can be considered a class of their own within the larger Oasis-class.

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All data verified by IHS Fairplay, DNV Ships Register, the Korean Ships Register and other reliable industry sources.

photos via AllSeas, Shipspotting, marinetraffic, Sembcorp, HMM