The headline for 2026: container ships now own ten of the fifteen slots, and Royal Caribbean’s Icon-class is the only thing standing between them and a clean sweep of the top spots. The supertankers that used to fill out this list are gone entirely. The unprecedented surge in container shipping volume, containership newbuildings, and the sheer increase in size of these newbuilds are a direct byproduct of dramatic shifts in consumer behavior during and immediately after the pandemic.

It’s been two years since I last updated this list, and the top end of it looks noticeably different. Same ground rules as the 2024 edition but just tightened up a bit. Of course we rank these by Gross Tonnage which is neither a measure of vessel weight nor displacement. Instead, it’s a measurement of volume so it better illustrates the sheer size of a vessel. Interestingly enough, it’s exactly why a container ship that’s stacked 26 levels high with steel boxes can rank below a cruise ship, even if it soars over it.

I also decided that the vessels that appear in this list have to be able to operate under their own power. That rules out offshore installations and FPSOs, and this time around it also rules out something that used to dominate this list (more on that at the bottom).

Also on the topic of these massive new container vessels, since lines are been building 12 and 16-ship series of identical giants, listing them individually would give you a top 15 with four names on it. Therefore I’ve decided to lump them all into one class.

Note: Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude FLNG is technically a floating facility and lacks its own propulsion system, but at 499,167gt, it would top this list if classified strictly as a ship. Historical supertankers like the Seawise Giant (260,941 GT) and Batillus-class ships (275,276 GT) are excluded below as they have since been scrapped.

#1 Pioneering Spirit

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

Pioneering Spirit is still the largest ship in the world, and it isn’t close — she’s 155,000gt clear of second place. Owned and operated by the Dutch company Allseas, she’s a pipe-laying and platform-removal vessel, and that second job is the interesting one. Using her signature ‘U’ shaped bow, she straddles an offshore platform, lifts the entire topside off its supporting jacket in one piece, and then picks up the jacket itself with her aft crane. Structurally she’s essentially two hulls welded together with a platform spanning the gap, which is where all that internal volume comes from. At 406ft, her beam is wider than an Oasis-class ship is tall.

#2 Icon Class

cruise ship | 248,663gt | 1,196–1,198ft LOA | 159ft Beam

Three ships now share this slot, all at an identical 248,663gt: Icon of the Seas (January 2024), Star of the Seas (August 2025) and Legend of the Seas (summer 2026). Royal Caribbean has effectively built the second, third and fourth largest ships in the world and given them the same tonnage figure. Worth remembering how much of that volume is enclosed passenger space rather than cargo hold — these ships carry roughly 15,000dwt against a container ship’s 225,000dwt, and still measure out larger. That’s the quirk of GT in a nutshell. For the full cruise-only ranking, see our Top 15 Largest Cruise Ships.

#3 CMA CGM Notre Dame Class

container ship | 236,800gt | 24,212 TEU | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

The newest entry on this list, and the largest container ship in the world by gross tonnage. CMA CGM took delivery of the lead ship in May 2026 from Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu in China, with ten planned through 2028 — all named after French landmarks (Panthéon, Orsay, Versailles, Pont Neuf and so on). They’re LNG dual-fuel with an 18,600 cubic metre membrane tank, and every one of them will fly the French flag, which is unusual enough at this size that CMA CGM made a point of it. The French registry decision comes with a commitment to hire at least 135 French seafarers.

#4 CMA CGM Jacques Saadé Class

container ship | 236,583gt | 23,112 TEU | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

The nine-ship class that started the LNG mega-boxship era back in 2020. Notably, the Jacques Saadé ships carry over 1,000 fewer containers than several ships below them on this list but still rank higher by tonnage — the LNG fuel tanks take up enclosed volume that counts toward GT while displacing revenue cargo. Slightly larger than her fleetmate Notre Dame in TEU terms she is not, but the two classes are within 220gt of each other.

#5 Utopia of the Seas

cruise ship | 236,473gt | 1,188ft LOA | 156ft Beam

Utopia debuted in July 2024 as the sixth Oasis-class hull and the first in the class to burn LNG. She runs short getaway cruises out of Port Canaveral, which makes her the largest ship in the world doing three and four night itineraries. Her tonnage edges out Wonder of the Seas by a few hundred, mostly down to enclosed space added on her upper decks.

#6 Evergreen A-Class

container ship | 236,228gt | 24,004 TEU | 1,312ft LOA | 202ft Beam

Evergreen’s A-class began with Ever Ace in 2021 (23,992 TEU, 235,579gt) and continued with a slightly enlarged batch including Ever Alot, Ever Apex, Ever Aria, Ever Atop and Ever Acme at 24,004 TEU and 236,228gt. Thirteen ships in total. Ever Ace held the world container ship record for about eighteen months before MSC took it back. And yes, Ever Alot remains the best ship name in the fleet.

#7 Wonder of the Seas

cruise ship | 235,600gt | 1,187ft LOA | 154ft Beam

Wonder was the world’s largest cruise ship when she was handed over in January 2022, and the first of what Royal Caribbean calls the Oasis-plus design — the most obvious change being the reworked and enclosed top decks, which is also what pushed her tonnage past the original Oasis quartet. Originally destined for the Chinese market before COVID redirected her to North America.

#8 OOCL Spain Class

container ship | 235,341gt | 24,188 TEU | 224,969dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

Six ships built by Nantong COSCO KHI (NACKS) in China starting in 2023 — Spain, Piraeus, Zeebrugge, Gdynia, Valencia and Abu Dhabi. OOCL Spain briefly held the world capacity record before MSC’s Irina class beat her by 158 boxes. All six carry ABS “Smart Ship” notations for their onboard data and monitoring systems, which is becoming standard at this size.

#9 OOCL Wisdom Class

container ship | 234,361gt | 24,168 TEU | 225,000dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

The other 2026 debutante, and a genuinely different animal: OOCL Wisdom is the largest methanol dual-fuel ship ever built. Named in May 2026 at NACKS in Nantong, she’s the first of seven sisters due through 2028. Main engines, auxiliaries and boilers all run on methanol or conventional fuel oil, and on green methanol OOCL claims roughly 150,000 tonnes of annual CO2 savings per ship. While the rest of the industry bet on LNG, COSCO went the other way.

#10 MSC Irina Class

container ship | 233,328gt | 24,346 TEU | 1,312ft LOA | 201ft Beam

MSC Loreto and sister MSC Irina at Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding

Still the world record holder by container capacity at 24,346 TEU, and has been since March 2023. Six ships from Jiangsu Yangzijiang — Irina, Loreto, Michel Cappellini, Mariella, Micol and Türkiye — with containers stacked up to 26 tiers deep. She sits below several smaller-capacity ships here purely because she’s conventionally fuelled and has no LNG tanks eating into her internal volume. MSC, incidentally, is the sister company to MSC Cruises, and operates over 700 ships across the group.

#11 MSC Gülsün Class

container ship | 232,618gt | 23,756 TEU | 254,042dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 202ft Beam

Sixteen ships split between Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo to speed up delivery, which is why the class has two sets of numbers — the Samsung hulls come in at 232,618gt and 23,756 TEU, the Daewoo ones at 228,714gt and 23,656 TEU. The Gülsüns were the first container ships to stack 24 boxes wide on deck, and at 254,042dwt they’re the heaviest-lifting ships on this entire list.

#12 MSC Tessa Class

container ship | 230,757gt | 24,116 TEU | 1,312ft LOA | 202ft Beam

Show Image

MSC’s other 24,000-TEU program, built at Hudong-Zhonghua and Jiangnan in China, including Tessa, Nicola Mastro, China, Raya, Celestino Maresca, Mette and Claude Girardet. MSC Tessa took the world capacity record in late 2022 for a matter of months before her larger Irina-class fleetmates arrived. MSC now holds more slots on the ultra-large list than any other line, which tracks with them being the largest container operator in the world at roughly 7.3 million TEU of fleet capacity.

#13 Hamburg Express Class

container ship | 229,376gt | 23,660 TEU | 229,348dwt | 1,310ft LOA | 200ft Beam

Show Image

Hapag-Lloyd’s first foray into ultra-large tonnage, and a $2 billion one. Twelve LNG dual-fuel ships from Hanwha Ocean in South Korea, delivered between 2023 and 2025, starting with Berlin Express and finishing with Wilhelmshaven Express in October 2025. Every one of them flies the German flag, making Berlin Express the largest cargo ship ever to do so. Their LNG tanks are IMO Type B, built from high-manganese steel rather than the usual nickel alloys.

#14 HMM Algeciras Class

container ship | 228,283gt | 23,964 TEU | 232,606dwt | 1,312ft LOA | 200ft Beam

Twelve ships, all delivered in 2020, and for a while the largest container ships in the world. Korea’s HMM built them across two yards to get them out the door faster, and timed them almost perfectly for the post-2020 shipping boom. Six years on they’re the oldest container class still holding a spot in the top 15, which says something about how fast this end of the fleet has turned over.

#15 Symphony of the Seas

cruise ship | 228,081gt | 18,095dwt | 1,184ft LOA

Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas right after departing STX France shipyard

The last cruise ship to make the cut, and the largest of the original run of Oasis-class vessels. When she entered service in 2018 she was the largest cruise ship in the world; on this list she now clings to the bottom rung. That drift is the real story of this ranking. In 2016 Harmony of the Seas would have placed in the top three worldwide. Today she’s the first ship off the list.

Just missed the cut

Harmony of the Seas — 226,963gt
Oasis of the Seas — 226,838gt
Allure of the Seas — 226,637gt
ONE Innovation class — approx. 225,000gt, 24,136 TEU
MSC World America — 216,638gt, the largest non-Royal Caribbean cruise ship

What dropped off, and why

The 2022 and 2024 versions of this list were full of supertankers: FSO Asia, FSO Africa, TI Europe and Oceania, the four 441,000dwt TI-class ULCCs built by Daewoo in 2002–03 at 234,006gt to 236,638gt apiece. All four are gone from this ranking, and not because anything happened to the hulls. Every one of them has now been converted to floating storage and offloading service and is permanently moored — TI Asia and TI Africa at Qatar’s Al Shaheen field, TI Europe converted in 2017, and TI Oceania finishing conversion in 2024 to become SA Oceania off Malaysia. They’re still enormous. They just don’t go anywhere under their own power anymore, which puts them outside the self-propelled rule.

Prelude FLNG is out for the same reason, as is every FPSO. No new ULCCs have been ordered since the TI quartet — the largest crude carriers built today are VLCCs in the 300,000dwt, 160,000gt range, well short of this list.

Tonnage figures from Lloyd’s Register, DNV, Bureau Veritas, the Korean Register of Shipping and operator specifications. Where a class was built across multiple yards with differing tonnages, the largest variant is used.