The world’s largest container ship can carry 24,000 standard shipping containers — enough to deliver every Christmas gift in a city.
How to Play: Guess if the ship on the right has a HIGHER or LOWER TEU capacity than the one on the left.
Name A
Name B
Top 10 Largest Container Ships
TEU = Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, the standard shipping container. 1 TEU = one 20-ft container; one 40-ft container = 2 TEU. Modern megaships top 24,000 TEU.
| # | Name | TEU Capacity | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MSC Irina | 24,346 | TEU |
| 2 | MSC Loreto | 24,346 | TEU |
| 3 | OOCL Spain | 24,188 | TEU |
| 4 | MSC Tessa | 24,116 | TEU |
| 5 | Ever Alot | 24,004 | TEU |
| 6 | HMM Algeciras | 23,964 | TEU |
| 7 | MSC Gulsun | 23,756 | TEU |
| 8 | Ever Globe | 21,710 | TEU |
| 9 | OOCL Hong Kong | 21,413 | TEU |
| 10 | Cosco Shipping Universe | 21,237 | TEU |
Container Ship Scale
Modern megaships are 400m+ long, 60m+ wide, and stack containers 11+ high above deck. They are too big for the Panama Canal — they go through the Suez or around the Cape.
MSC Irina (2023) holds the current record at 24,346 TEU. The trend has been doubling every decade — 5,000 TEU in 1996, 10,000 in 2006, 18,000 in 2013, 24,000+ in 2023.
The Ever Given (the ship that blocked the Suez Canal in 2021) was 20,124 TEU. The blockage cost global shipping ~$10 billion in delays — illustrating the cost when megaships break down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Largest container ship ever?
MSC Irina, 24,346 TEU, launched 2023.
Are they getting bigger?
Yes, but slowing. Recent megaships are clustered at 24K. Port infrastructure can’t handle larger ships easily.
How much can a megaship hold?
24,000 TEU = ~250,000 tons of cargo. Enough Volkswagen Golfs to fill 9 Olympic pools, or a year’s supply of bananas for the entire UK.
Why aren't they bigger?
Constraints include port crane reach, water depth, and the capital cost of building new ones. Operational efficiency drops above 25,000 TEU.
Note: TEU capacities per container shipping registries 2024.
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