We deduce a generalized hydrodynamic limit for the box–ball system, which explains how the densities of solitons of different sizes evolve asymptotically under Euler space-time scaling. To describe the limiting soliton flow, we introduce a continuous state-space analogue of the soliton decomposition of Ferrari, Nguyen, Rolla and Wang (cf. the original work of Takahashi and Satsuma), namely we relate the densities of solitons of given sizes in space to corresponding densities on a scale of ‘effective distances’, where the dynamics are linear. For smooth initial conditions, we further show that the resulting evolution of the soliton densities in space can alternatively be characterised by a partial differential equation, which naturally links the time-derivatives of the soliton densities and the ‘effective speeds’ of solitons locally.