What is the world's largest archipelago by area?

The world’s largest archipelago by area is the Malay Archipelago.

The Malay Archipelago stretches between mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, mainly across the Indian and Pacific oceans. It encompasses much of Maritime Southeast Asia, including the Indonesian and Philippine island groups, as well as islands associated with Brunei, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore.

The region contains more than 25,000 islands and islets and covers about 2.87 million square kilometers. Its major islands include New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, Luzon, and Mindanao. It is therefore much broader than the Indonesian Archipelago or the Philippine Archipelago alone.

The term has a complicated history. European writers popularized “Malay Archipelago” in the 19th century, and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace used it as the title of a major book about his travels and observations. Wallace also studied the biological boundary now called the Wallace Line, which separates Asian and Australasian fauna. The archipelago’s exact boundaries vary by definition, but it is conventionally recognized as the largest by area.