Q&A: When does a theater count as one battle?

If the Battle of the Atlantic counts as one battle, would it be larger by number of ships?

Possibly, but only by treating a years-long campaign and theater as a single battle, which makes the comparison fundamentally different from Ecnomus.

The Battle of the Atlantic might outrank Ecnomus by ship count if it is treated as a single battle. Historians also classify the Atlantic struggle as a campaign and a theater, so the categories overlap. Acceptance of it as one battle is comparatively recent, and a struggle across several years and oceans remains unlike a concentrated day of combat. Duration and geographic unity therefore matter when comparing naval superlatives.