Japan's Yamato and Musashi top the ranking at 72,809 tonnes fully loaded — nearly 15,000 tonnes heavier than America's Iowa-class ships, the largest battleships the US ever built.
Quick answer: 1. Yamato, 2. Musashi, 3. Iowa, 4. New Jersey, 5. Missouri, 6. Wisconsin, 7. Tirpitz, 8. Bismarck, 9. Jean Bart, 10. Richelieu.
The battleship era ended with the ships getting bigger, not smaller. By World War II, the great naval powers had abandoned treaty limits and built floating fortresses that outweighed anything afloat before or since — Japan's Yamato-class alone displaced more than some modern aircraft carriers. This list ranks the ten largest battleships ever completed by full-load displacement: the ship's weight fully stocked with fuel, ammunition, and crew. Every entry is a World War II-era ship, and no ship built since has come close.
The lead ship of her class and the largest battleship ever built. Her nine 46 cm (18.1-inch) guns remain the biggest naval artillery ever mounted on a warship — each turret weighed more than most destroyers. She was sunk on 7 April 1945 by US carrier aircraft while sailing on a one-way mission to Okinawa (Operation Ten-Go).
Yamato's sister ship, completed in August 1942, and the joint-heaviest battleship in history. She took over as flagship of Japan's Combined Fleet in early 1943. At the Battle of Leyte Gulf she absorbed an estimated 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits over four hours in the Sibuyan Sea before sinking on 24 October 1944.
Lead ship of the last and largest battleship class the United States ever built. Designed as a 33-knot 'fast battleship' to hunt down Japanese battlecruisers, she traded armor for speed and radar-directed firepower. Now a museum ship at San Pedro, Los Angeles.
The only US battleship to serve in the Vietnam War, shelling Viet Cong positions in 1968 — a deployment during which she displaced roughly 61,000 tonnes fully loaded, heavier than her as-built figure. The most decorated battleship in US Navy history, now a museum at Camden, New Jersey.
The most famous deck in naval history: Japan's formal surrender was signed aboard her in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Reactivated in the 1980s with Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, she fired her 16-inch guns in combat for the last time during the 1991 Gulf War. Museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The last of the four Iowa-class ships completed, she earned battle stars in both Korea and the 1991 Gulf War — nearly five decades of service bookended by World War II and Desert Storm. Preserved as a museum ship at Norfolk, Virginia.
The 'Lonely Queen of the North.' Stationed in Norwegian fjords, she spent most of the war as a fleet in being, tying down British naval forces without firing her main guns in a surface battle. Sunk at her Tromsø anchorage on 12 November 1944 by RAF Lancasters dropping 12,000-lb Tallboy bombs.
The most famous commerce raider of the war. On 24 May 1941 she sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood in the Denmark Strait — one of the Royal Navy's most traumatic losses — before being hunted down and sunk herself three days later on 27 May 1941.
The last battleship ever completed, finally finished in 1955 — ten years after the war she was designed for. Her unusual all-forward quadruple turrets packed eight 380 mm guns into a treaty-era hull. She fired her main battery in anger once, bombarding Port Said during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
France's wartime flagship-in-exile, she fled to Dakar in 1940 and was modernized in the United States in 1943 — the refit that brought her full-load displacement to 47,728 tonnes. She served with the British Eastern Fleet in 1944 and was present for Japan's surrender of Singapore.
| # | Name | commissioned | country | fate | fullLoadTonnes | mainGuns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yamato | 1941 | Japan | Sunk 7 Apr 1945 | 72809 | 9 × 46 cm (18.1 in) |
| 2 | Musashi | 1942 | Japan | Sunk 24 Oct 1944 | 72809 | 9 × 46 cm (18.1 in) |
| 3 | Iowa | 1943 | United States | Museum ship, Los Angeles | 58460 | 9 × 16 in/50 Mark 7 |
| 4 | New Jersey | 1943 | United States | Museum ship, Camden NJ | 58460 | 9 × 16 in/50 Mark 7 |
| 5 | Missouri | 1944 | United States | Museum ship, Pearl Harbor | 58460 | 9 × 16 in/50 Mark 7 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 1944 | United States | Museum ship, Norfolk VA | 58460 | 9 × 16 in/50 Mark 7 |
| 7 | Tirpitz | 1941 | Germany | Sunk 12 Nov 1944 | 52600 | 8 × 38 cm (15 in) |
| 8 | Bismarck | 1940 | Germany | Sunk 27 May 1941 | 50300 | 8 × 38 cm (15 in) |
| 9 | Jean Bart | 1955 | France | Scrapped 1970 | 49196 | 8 × 380 mm (15 in) |
| 10 | Richelieu | 1940 | France | Scrapped 1968 | 47728 | 8 × 380 mm (15 in) |
Ranked by full-load displacement in metric tonnes — the ship's weight fully stocked with fuel, ammunition, stores, and crew — using the heaviest documented full-load configuration for each ship (e.g., Richelieu's 1943 refit figure rather than her as-built figure). Only completed battleships are included; planned or cancelled ships (such as the US Montana class) are excluded, as are battlecruisers. Tied displacements (Yamato/Musashi; the four Iowa-class ships) are ordered with the lead ship first. Figures are drawn from the class infoboxes of standard naval references.
The Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi, completed in 1941 and 1942, each displaced 72,809 tonnes at full load. They also carried the largest naval guns ever mounted on a warship: nine 46 cm (18.1-inch) guns.
None. Every battleship in the world has been retired; the last to leave service were decommissioned in the early 1990s. The four Iowa-class ships all survive as museum ships in the United States.
Full-load displacement is the ship's weight fully stocked with fuel, ammunition, stores, and crew — the heaviest condition a ship routinely operates in. Standard displacement (an empty-ish treaty measurement) would scramble the order, so full load is the honest apples-to-apples comparison.
Yamato displaced about 72,809 tonnes to the Iowa class's 58,460 tonnes, and outgunned them with 18.1-inch guns versus 16-inch. The Iowas answered with speed: 33 knots to Yamato's 27, plus radar-directed fire control the Japanese ships never matched.
The French battleship Jean Bart, finally completed in 1955 — a full decade after World War II ended — was the last battleship ever finished. She fired her guns in anger only once, during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
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