Timeline of largest passenger ships

This is a timeline of the world's largest passenger ships based upon internal volume, initially measured by gross register tonnage and later by gross tonnage. This timeline reflects the largest extant passenger ship in the world at any given time. If a given ship was superseded by another, scrapped, or lost at sea, it is then succeeded. Some records for tonnage outlived the ships that set them - notably the SS Great Eastern, and RMS Queen Elizabeth. The term "largest passenger ship" has gradually fallen out of use since the mid-1990s. Since that time the title of "largest cruise ship" has largely been given to those confined to cruising rather than transatlantic ocean travel.