What is the largest desert in the world?

The largest desert in the world is the Antarctic Desert. While many people often think of hot deserts like the Sahara or Arabian deserts when considering desert environments, deserts are technically defined by their low precipitation levels rather than temperature. The Antarctic Desert, despite being a cold desert, covers an area of about 14 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles), making it larger than any other desert on Earth.

In contrast, the Sahara Desert, which is the largest hot desert, covers approximately 9.2 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles), significantly smaller than the Antarctic. The Arabian Desert and the Gobi Desert also do not reach the vastness of the Antarctic Desert, with the Arabian Desert covering around 2.33 million square kilometers (900,000 square miles) and the Gobi Desert approximately 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles). This distinction in size based on the definition of a desert clarifies why the Antarctic Desert is considered the largest.