To describe the extent of oxidation we performed a spherical shell analysis, effectively plotting the oxygen density around the center of mass. These density profiles show that at high pressures, oxygen atoms are found close to the core. We then attempt to establish a connection between the theoretically predicted complete oxidation and experimental measurements done at different particle size distributions. For our lowest platinum loading sample (10 wt%, 1.7 nm average diameter), we observed predominantly oxidized species with no metallic character from our XRD measurements. Similarly, for the larger sample (20 wt%, 2.4 nm average diameter) XRD did not show a significant crystallite domain. However, our EXAFS analysis showed a low Pt-Pt coordination number from which we conclude that the particles are in a mixed state of metallic and oxidized platinum. These findings suggest that the 1.5 to 2.5 nm size range represents a transitional behavior between larger, partially oxidized nanoparticles and smaller, fully oxidized nanoparticles. We suggest that such Monte Carlo simulations will most likely always predict complete oxidation of the nanoparticle regardless of size due to the lack of kinetic aspects. In reality, however, the oxidation process through to the core is unfavorable for larger nanoparticles due to the high activation energy required for oxygen diffusion into the platinum lattice.