How big is the Empire State Building next to King Kong?
The Empire State Building measures 443.2 m (1,454 ft) from the ground up, and King Kong measures 102 m (334.6 ft) from the ground up. The Empire State Building comes to 4.35 times the height of King Kong, a difference of 341.2 m (1,119 ft). Take 4 King Kongs stacked up and you reach 408 m (1,339 ft), still 35.2 m (115.5 ft) short of the Empire State Building; one more would overshoot by 66.8 m (219.2 ft). The Empire State Building and King Kong are both written in hundreds of metres, so the 4.35-to-one gap has to be read off the digits rather than off the unit.
| Object | Real size | Axis measured | What the figure covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empire State Building | 443.2 m 1,454 ft |
Height | Ground to highest point |
| King Kong | 102 m 334.6 ft |
Height | Godzilla vs Kong, 2021 |
Both figures, Empire State Building and King Kong, come from the Size It Up measurement set, one real-world size and one measured axis per object, last checked in September 2026; outline provenance is listed on the sources page.
Why this one is hard to judge by eye
King Kong has never been measured, only stated: the figure comes from its source and moves when the source is redrawn, while the Empire State Building can be checked with a tape, so this pair sets a decision against a measurement. The Empire State Building is drawn about 2.23 times as wide as King Kong as well as 4.35 times its height, so the area it takes in the frame grows faster than the figure anyone quotes. Nothing this size arrives at the eye whole: the Empire State Building reaches you as a small angle from wherever you can stand back far enough to see it, and the brain fills the rest in from what it expects, which is how 341.2 m of difference goes unnoticed.
What each figure covers
Empire State Building. The 443.2 m reaches the tip of the antenna. To the roof it is 381 m, and that difference is why the building trades places with others depending on which figure a list uses.
King Kong. The height is the 2021 film design, far larger than the 1933 original. Both are called the same character, and almost nothing about the scale carries over.
The Empire State Building and King Kong are both quoted as a height, which is what makes the ratio above a like-for-like figure.
What else is about that size?
Measured the same way, Empire State Building at 443.2 m sits within two fifths of One World Trade Center at 541.3 m and Eiffel Tower at 330 m. King Kong at 102 m has Big Ben at 96 m, Victoria Falls at 108 m and Saturn V Rocket at 110.6 m for company, within a tenth. Swapping any of those in for the Empire State Building would move its ratio to King Kong by less than 40%.