The 5 Biggest Shopping Malls In America Feel Endless

People do a lot of shopping on the internet, but if you're part of a certain generation or have a more traditional outlook on shopping, you may miss the experience of going to a mall. These retail paradises were once the place to see and be seen, to find the latest fashions, and to indulge in snacks like soft pretzels and a smoothie at Orange Julius. 

While scrolling through items on Amazon may have replaced in-person shopping, there are still some pretty spectacular malls out there. We're looking at the five biggest malls in America, and if you've ever visited one, you know how vast they can feel once you're inside. In fact, it's easy to get in at least your daily 10,000 steps in these places. And for some, they even constitute destinations in and of themselves, more-than-worthy side trips while visiting the cities they're found in.

To compile our list, we reviewed several online rankings and cross-referenced them with independent sources detailing a mall's square footage. We also looked at individual mall websites to identify the amenities and attractions they offer, including carousels, theme parks, and more (there's a water park in one of them and an aquarium in another). Head to the end of the article for more information on how we ranked them. Even if you don't buy a thing, these malls are worth a visit. 

Aventura Mall in Florida is the fifth-largest mall in the United States. It was built in 1983 and has a floor plan that covers an area of 2,700,000 square feet. It's so big that Aventura is home to a Mall Walking Club, which offers guided walks along a 2-mile indoor path on Mondays through Thursdays at 9 a.m. Aventura Mall was actually voted as the reader favorite in USA Today's 2025 10BEST ranking, and for good reason. There are hundreds of shops here, including Gucci, Dior, Hermès, Apple, Ralph Lauren, and a two-level Zara. There is plenty of department store selection here as well, featuring Nordstrom, Macy's, and Bloomingdale's. Shoppers can even hit the upper level to enroll in TSA PreCheck through CLEAR. 

Beyond the stores, however, is a world of fun. You can check out the Gorillas in the Mist water sculpture fountain and courtyard near the Apple store, and the calming Koi Pond in Center Court. Kids will enjoy the Rainbow Valley Playground near JCPenney, designed by the Miami-based artists Arturo Sandoval III and Sam Borkson, and you can hit the Aventura Market on weekends, where you can shop through stalls of crafts, food, and baked goods.  

In 2017, Aventura Mall added a massive new wing of 315,000 square feet, and shortly after that, a 93-foot-tall sculpture, courtesy of artist Carsten Höller, called the Aventura Slide Tower. Visitors can climb up this steel-and-glass structure and then slide down it in one go. Open only on weekends from noon to 8 p.m., it's best to arrive early if you don't want to wait in line. Designed by Carsten Höller, this is a towering, curving slide. You can walk up the stairs and slide down in the twisty tubes. Next door is an open-air shopping district called The Abbey, with over 219,000 square feet of retail spaces, restaurants, and entertainment, so the fun doesn't stop at the mall.

Close behind at 2,738,700 square feet (and sometimes swapped with Aventura Mall in online rankings, depending on what's being included) is South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. This shopping mall, located around 40 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, has new stores opening all the time. In fact, at the time of writing, South Coast Plaza recently welcomed stores like Harry Winston, Manolo Blahnik, Skims, Piaget, and Alo. You'll also find established stores like Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Pop Mart, Chanel, and even Santa Maria Novella, which is a franchise of one of the world's oldest pharmacies.

The mall often hosts events as well, including a "Spring Garden Show," wedding events, a Sur La Table summer series for kids, a talk on Nike, and more. Across from Nordstrom, you'll find the South Coast Plaza Village, with restaurants, art galleries, and more. The dining scene at South Coast Plaza features a fair amount of casual restaurants, but in addition, there are several fine-dining spots like The Capital Grille, Vaca, Water Grill, Morton's The Steakhouse, and Quattro Caffé. You're also right next to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus, which is where you'll find the South Coast Repertory performing arts theater and the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

In the third spot on the list of the largest malls in America, we have the King of Prussia Mall, the largest mall in Pennsylvania, at 2,793,200 square feet. Around 20 miles from Philadelphia, this mall is full of luxury stores like Cartier, Creed, Saint Laurent, Ferragamo, and Bvlgari. 

Of course, the mall has everyday favorites like Crate & Barrel, Ann Taylor, Old Navy, and Sephora. In fact, there are more than 450 stores in the King of Prussia Mall. There is plenty to eat here as well, with True Food Kitchen, Morton's The Steakhouse, Seasons 52, The Cheesecake Factory, and Eddie V's Prime Seafood.

You'll definitely want to bring the kids along for the ride, as The Sloomoo Institute has a home in this mall. The interactive museum is touted as "The World's #1 Slime Experience," where you can explore different textures and encounter a range of sensory experiences. These include creating your own slime at the Sloomoo Slime Bar and adding it to the Sloomoo & Repeat Wall, an ever-evolving modern art piece built from the slime creations of previous visitors. There is even a space to host private birthday parties. And if you are looking to stay in the area, the King of Prussia Mall is within walking distance of several hotels.

While the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, is the second-largest mall in North America, the second-largest in the United States is the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at 3,000,000 square feet. You may forget that you're in a mall here, as there are entire theme parks within its borders. 

The Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park is one of them, and it happens to be the largest indoor theme park in the Western Hemisphere. You can get tickets and passes online for its many joyrides and activities: Ride a roller coaster, climb the Hidden Temple Ropes obstacle course, and even get slimed by Team Nick on a stage. If that isn't enough to entertain you, you can also visit DreamWorks Water Park, the largest indoor water park in North America. The outsized hits keep coming with Big Snow, an indoor, real-snow ski resort, as well as the Legoland Discovery Center, Angry Birds Mini-Golf, the educational learning center Sesame Street Learn & Play, and The Rink at The Arena, an NHL regulation-size ice rink.

There are, of course, plenty of stores to shop at: Columbia, Alo, Swarovski, Vans, and Saks Fifth Avenue, just to name a few. Dining options include Isola Bella, Carpaccio, Around The Clock, and more. The mall also features several food halls for a quick bite.

The largest mall in the United States is the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis, at 5,600,000 square feet. It houses up to 500 stores and evenhas its own podcast. You can get your Labubus at Pop Mart, or visit stores like Aerie, Kate Spade New York, It'Sugar, Chanel, and the usual suspects. But you can also find more unusual stores like Got Kilt? and even the Mall of America Gift Store. You not only have a wide choice of delicious restaurants, but you can also order online and get curbside pickup (available at certain retailers, too). 

This mall, however, goes way beyond shopping. Nickelodeon Universe, the mall's massive indoor theme park, has a home here that spans an incredible 7 acres. You can visit the family-friendly Crayola Experience and make your own crayons, or hit the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the state. 

If you like golf, you can visit Moose Mountain Adventure Golf, an 18-hole miniature golf course, or Rock of Ages Blacklight Minigolf for some funky putting through sections themed on different eras of music. You can get a bit trippy at the Museum of Illusions, or test your skills in The Escape Game, which has a number of themes and allows visitors 60 minutes to solve the puzzles. And if you feel like enjoying some Midwestern fare of cheese curds, sausage, and other snacks, or hitting a go-kart track and throwing axes, you can get all your state fair vibes from The Fair on 4. 

To find the biggest shopping malls in America, we looked at lists and rankings from various sources, cross-referencing them to get a lock on each mall's square footage. We also reviewed the number and kind of attractions these malls offered to paint as clear a picture as possible about why visitors might want to go there (apart from simply experiencing their vastness). 

Then, we checked out USA Today's 10BEST list of the most popular malls to see which ones people liked the most. To cap it all off, the writer of the piece has been to most of the malls on this list (including a stint as a worker in South Coast Plaza), so the piece was informed with on-the-ground experience.