When is the GTA 6 release date? Grand Theft Auto V popped into our lives almost nine years ago, back when the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were king. Now, with the current-gen consoles here we finally can look forward to Grand Theft Auto 6, which we know is in active development.
It’s no surprise that people are desperate for a new game either. The fifth entry into this timeless carjacking game brought us an intricately woven single-player and a massively entertaining multiplayer that still attracts millions of people every day. GTA 6 is shaping up to be that and so much more according to hints from Rockstar, leaks, and rumors – all of which you can find below!
GTA 6 release date rumors
The GTA 6 release date is expected to arrive in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, most likely in Fall 2024. This window was suggested in a recent Take-Two Interactive investor report, where it said it would make $8 billion in net bookings in this Fiscal year – a figure likely only achievable with the release of GTA 6.
Take-Two Interactive projected in the same report to just make between $5.45 to $5.55 billion in net bookings in the Fiscal year 2023-2024. That jump in revenue projections is more than likely due to the Grand Theft Auto 6 release date arriving in that period. Unless Take-Two has plans to release multiple huge games that year, such as the upcoming fourth Bioshock game, its annual sports titles, 31st Union’s shooter, and more, we don’t see what other franchises or set of games could make so much money.
Take Two’s chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick was also very cagey during a CNBC interview, which pressed him on what could cause such an increase in revenue projections.
Additionally, well-known Rockstar insider ‘Tez2’ on the GTA Forums has also supported the idea that it will release in this window saying that Rockstar’s “aimed-always-changing-not-set-in-stone deadline is holiday 2024. Which has been pushed back multiple times in the past few years. Unfortunately, it could slip into early 2025 as well.”
We’ll keep this guide updated with any more rumors and leaks or official confirmation of a GTA 6 release date.
GTA 6 location
Thanks to gameplay leaks in September 2022 and a report from Bloomberg, we know that the GTA 6 location is Vice City, Miami, with players returning to the location once again.
These leaks also confirmed that the game would seemingly be set in the modern day, which was previously rumored for the next mainline game in the series.
This has yet to be confirmed by Rockstar, but if the game is set to be revealed next year, we could see Vice City return in a trailer sooner rather than later.
GTA 6 map
The GTA 6 map could potentially be twice as large as GTA 5’s Los Santos, thanks to calculations made after the GTA 6 development leaks.
These calculations used location coordinates from the leaked footage to determine a potential grid size for the map. Redditor ‘jumbo04’ says that their calculations estimate GTA 6’s map grid size to be over 200 square kilometres – although, as with most game maps, the overworld won’t fill every bit of this grid, so the actual playable space may be smaller than that 200 sq/km figure. For comparison, fan research found that the playable square footage of GTA 5’s map is just over 80 sq/km.
We didn’t get any details on the actual map or what it looks like from above in those leaks either, as UI and images weren’t shown. But, this is a pretty good estimation. Given how big some of the best PS5 open-world games and best Xbox open-world games are today too, the size wouldn’t exactly come as a huge surprise.
Of course, these are estimations based off of leaked footage of a game that’s still in development – take it with a grain of salt.
Don’t expect GTA 6’s Vice City to exactly look like the original version of the city did. With more than two decades in between the iterations of the location, you will probably see a lot of differences when we finally get to see the game in action. But, we wouldn’t be surprised if there are some fun easter eggs or throwbacks too.
Don’t expect the whole map to be a giant cityscape either, as you will likely see a diverse set of environments, as we saw in Grand Theft Auto 5.
GTA 6 leaks
A report from Kotaku that the new GTA 6 will be “moderately sized” and will continually be updated as time goes on. As such, you can likely expect a live-service style approach for the main game as well as the online. It’s likely this will get a number of updates, similar to how GTA Online has been built up over the last decade with more missions and heists added to keep the game fresh for longer.
As mentioned throughout this guide, the biggest GTA 6 leak was the gameplay footage that was posted online in September 2022. This leak contained almost 100 clips of gameplay, which were stolen after Rockstar suffered a “network intrusion”. The leaked footage showed areas of the game’s map and some basic gameplay interactions, but the most interesting revelation was that there appeared to be both a male and female protagonist.
Of course, GTA 5 let players switch between three main characters, but it looks like GTA 6 will give us the series’ first playable female character. The leaks show that she is called Lucia, and the male character is called Jason.
In a statement following the leaks, Rockstar said it was “disappointed” and confirmed the footage was legitimate. However, it also said that the leak would not have any negative “long-term effect on the development of any of our ongoing projects” and that it’s committed to making GTA 6 a game that “truly exceeds expectations”.
There you have it, everything we know about the current state of Rockstar’s next open-world behemoth and when you can expect the upcoming GTA 6 release date. GTA 5 is in our list of the best games of all time, so let’s hope the sequel can join it once it finally releases.
