IKEA, the beloved Swedish furniture giant, operates an impressive 484 stores across 63 markets worldwide. While the brand remains deeply rooted in Swedish culture, with its signature blue and yellow colour scheme, iconic meatballs, and classic Scandinavian pantry items, it may come as a surprise that the world’s largest IKEA isn’t in Sweden, where the first store opened in 1958 in the small town of Älmhult. In fact, it isn’t even in Europe.
While Germany boasts the highest number of IKEA stores globally, and the newest location recently opened on London’s Oxford Street, the title of the world’s largest IKEA belongs to a different part of the world entirely. The biggest IKEA store on Earth is located 5,802 miles away in Pasay City, Manila, in the Philippines.
The store spans an incredible 700,000 square feet. It first opened its doors in 2021 and is located within the massive Mall of Asia complex, which is the biggest shopping centre in the country.
Alongside its expansive retail space, it houses a large warehouse, in-store dining, and a call center dedicated to supporting local online shopping, according to construction company Mace Group.
It also serves as the backbone of IKEA’s e-commerce operations in the Philippines.
The facility is directly connected to the shopping centre via a 32 meter wide link bridge that spans a busy access road. It was completed in just four weeks, using steel beams and nine-meter segments of precast hollowcore.
The second largest IKEA in the world is located in Gwangmyeong, South Korea, while the third biggest is the IKEA in Älmhult, Sweden, the original site where the company was founded and home to the IKEA Museum.
One TikTok user, Angelina, shared a video of her visiting the world’s biggest IKEA. In her video titled “Come with me to the biggest IKEA in the world located in Manila, Philippines”, she gives her 650,000 followers a first-hand look at just how massive the store really is.
She raved about its food court, and said: “They have so many cool things we don’t have in England, like pistachio cinnamon rolls and ube doughnuts!”
As she explored the sprawling showroom, she summed it up by stating: “This IKEA has every single thing. You name any random furniture, and they’d have it.
“But by the end, I honestly felt like I walked a whole marathon. It was so long and felt like a maze. Absolutely enormous but Angelina certified.”
