GTA 6: Everything We Know After 3 Years of Waiting (Release Date, Trailers, Map Leaks)

The first GTA 6 trailer released will forever be remembered by me. Yet on a random Tuesday morning, it was the month of December 2023. I was pretty sleepy and scrolling through my phone, when my group chat filled up. How many messages are there, if they are 15, and they’re in 2 minutes, and just links+capital letters. I basically hit it and then, in bed, I just watched the trailer again on my phone, then I watched it again on my laptop on headphones.
This was no ordinary game press release, I thought. This was an event.

So I have been pursuing every leak, every official update, every INCH of every trailer (embarrassing amount of time). I don’t mean to come off as a gaming journalist (I’m not) but GTA has actually been a part of my life since I was a teen sitting up past midnight in Vice City. So, when rockstar finally confirmed that GTA 6 was real and it was coming, I paid attention.
Here’s what I know, and know it’s true, in a nutshell.

To begin with, The Release What We Actually Know

GTA 6 will be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2025, with the PC version expected to be released sometime after that — most likely in the six months to year after console launch, again, standard for Rockstar.
What you’re probably thinking is, “2025?” But it’s 2026.” Yes and that’s what everybody is talking about right now. Rockstar has been keeping mum about any postponement, but the game’s delay has been on everyone’s radar. Rockstar’s communication regarding the game has been limited and as of now, that tone is to say that it is still in final polish or something has changed in the process.

Don’t imagine I possess any inside particulars. No one knows that is true beyond Rockstar and any one saying otherwise is making a guess. All that I can say is when Rockstar “delays” it’s usually because the game truly does require more time and they oftentimes do get it right eventually – be patient with them.

The trailers didn’t tell us much other than what we already knew.
Two trailers. This is all Rockstar has officially let out, and both should be analysed correctly as they provided much more information than most people picked up on with a first viewing.

Trailer 1: December 2023

Everybody was looking at the female character, Lucia first. This is the first time in the GTA’s main-line history for a woman to be one of the playable leads. She was seen in prison fairly early in the trailer, which led many to believe that the story is set to begin with her release or escape from prison.
It is set in a completely recognizable Vice City, Rockstar’s fake Miami, and it looks amazing. Water and neon and Art Deco buildings and swamps. It’s Miami obviously, and it’s like taken to the next level, hyper-real.
The trailer also revealed what looks like a male protagonist with Lucia, and, that, after all, is the Bonnie and Clyde that Rockstar have been hinting at. Two protagonists, sometimes changing like GTA 5’s three character system.
The media element of the social is significant. There are influencer style content, live streams, individuals recording criminals on their phone, etc. There’s no doubt Rockstar is creating a world that is of 2020, not of 2013.

Trailer 2: 2024

This was more about the context of the story in the second trailer. It is announced that Jason will play the male lead opposite Lucia. Obviously, they’re a couple, obviously they’re in over their heads and obviously the emotional tone is that of the GTA 5 opener rather the game itself. There’s real stakes being set for characters you haven’t even fought as yet.
It looks like that’s a big map. Not only the actual city of Vice City, but surrounding areas also little towns, Everglades wetlands, beaches, countryside highways. Rockstar seem to be creating what might be the most geographically diverse open world to date.

The Map: How Big Are We Talking?

This is the most time I have devoted to researching as this concept really does have an impact on the way a GTA game feels to play and how big the maps are.
Whilst much like GTA 6 has been revealed from leaked footage and aerial drafts, people who have taken the time to analyse it (way too much, respect) suggest the map of GTA 6 is much larger than the map of GTA 5. Some estimates assume that if you count the supporting regions that surround Vice City, that number is more than double.

But what I’ve noticed from playing game is that all size doesn’t matter if there is no content to be occupied with. Having a large map was not the only reason why GTA 5’s map was great – every corner had something, whether a side mission, a random event or a hidden Easter egg. It will just be relative to the size of the map whether Rockstar can achieve the same density in GTA 6.

Based on the looks of the trailers, it appears that the answer is yes. Populated beaches, working businesses, interior locations, NPC routines that are more complex than anything in GTA 5 can be seen. Rockstar’s hardware has improved in more than 10 years.

Online Mode: The Part That Will Make Them Billions is a single-player novel adventure game.

There’s some truth about something. The GTA Online multiplayer DLC of GTA 5 has earned billions of dollars ear since 2013. It is still played and updated in 2026, more than 12 years after being launched! That’s genuinely extraordinary.

There’s no doubt about it, GTA 6 Online is set to be much larger and Rockstar is well aware. They have a template to follow: minimal features at launch, expand enormously over years and make money through a virtual currency system; they are known and developed this way throughout GTA Online.
When online is the massive revenue driver, is the single-player experience getting the love that it deserves as some players will ask or I will? The story mode in GTA 5 was amazing, and wasn’t given single player DLC as it was originally intended. All resources were moved towards Online.

One thing Rockstar must have realised, however, is that they didn’t do them a favour by not adding story content and that many fans were particularly unimpressed. The initial indicators point to a bold story for GTA 6, yet it remains to be seen what’s in store for the foray into single-player territory given the level of support post-release and what that might mean.

Platforms and the PC Question?

If you are a PC gamer, you can’t expect to get GTA 6 at launch. Rockstar has followed a trend on the GTA franchise of releasing the games first on console before rolling them out roughly 18-months later on PC, and it appears it is going to do the same with GTA 5. Red Dead Redemption 2 followed the same time of event.

PC will eventually get the better version with higher frame rates, mod support and better visuals, but in the meantime you will be waiting and spoiling yourselves while console gamers are already deep in the story.
If you’re a console player, you’ll need a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S to play GTA 6 PS4 and Xbox One will not be supporting the game. If you’re still stuck on last gen, this may be the impetus you needed to upgrade to play GTA 6.

One fun fact: if you’re a PS5 owner with a decent internet connection, the games available on PSN and the PSN infrastructure have greatly improved. Also on the table is Xbox Game Pass, based on how Microsoft intends to go about GTA 6’s release (which, again, remains unknown).

The Leaks Situation

Rockstar was hit with one of the largest game leaks of all time back in September 2022. A hacker infiltrated Rockstar’s internal processes and dumped approximately 90 videos of early GTA 6 footage that clearly is unfinished, rough and in a work-in-progress state.
My unfiltered thoughts on the leaks: yes it was interesting to see, but a poor decision in retrospect. Any footage from the first 20 minutes of any game looks pretty raw. Animations are unfinished, textures are unpolished and the world is a desolate but empty landscape. A half year into filming is the equivalent of a judge reading an unedited script it would seem terrible.

People made lots of uneducated comments based on the leaks, usually from people who have no idea about video games. Some of these thoughts are very lingering. Just ignore them. Rockstar’s releases are going to be vastly different than what leaked in 2022.

TheBestBits.com is a project I’m most eager to implement, while I simultaneously worry the most about it.

Genuinely excited about:

So Lucia and Jason as the two protagonists is a new concept for me. It’s the first time on this level in the GTA franchise, where the relationship between two characters is heavily used to progress the story.

The setting. This dream come true pairing of Vice City and 2026 era hardware is truly delightful. A personality which that city has that Los Santos doesn’t necessarily possess: the heat, the chaos, the excess.

The NPC behavior of what has been shown here seems more reactionary and living than that of GTA 5. Realistic reactions by the crowds, NPCs with routines, an inhabited world, not a populated world.
It is something that makes me uneasy,

The question about online monetization. Shark Cards’ the highest currency of GTA Online printed currency for Take-Two. The need to develop the game GTA 6 Online with that monetization model may impact game balance and single-player content.

The delay uncertainty. I can only wonder what really is the current situation within the game, and depends on how long it takes for Rockstar to integrate it properly that’s exactly what it’s going to look like. It’s not a positive sign when a publisher is silent, and with Rockstar’s reputation so it isn’t a good sign that they’re being silent either.

How to BEARLY Keep up without getting CRAZY

Here’s a list of some of the sites and accounts I’ve tried that have been helpful to me; if you want to see the latest GTA 6 news without the accompanying speculation and clickbait, then this is the way to go about it!
Never trust information that comes from non-official sources – they are the Rockstar website and official social media accounts only. Everything else is at best interpretation – at worst fabrication.
The speculatives posts are not as interesting as the pinned threads and if you do that then the signal/Noise ratio in the GTA 6 subreddit isn’t too bad.

A few and only a few YouTube channels actually do frame-by-frame breakdowns and/or pointing to actual time stamps rather than logging each thumbnail with the “CONFIRMED” stamp.

Disabling alerts or notifications for the gaming channels on YouTube that publish “news” about Fortnite or GTA 6 every day is an easy way to avoid interacting with fake news.An easy way to avoid faux news is to not watch YouTube alerts or notifications from channels that post “GTA 6 news” or “Fortnite news” every day. You will be checked in when something really does happen.

The Bottom Line

The most anticipated GTA game the world has even seen is GTA 6 and for a reason. Rockstar, who made three of the most influential open-world games of all time, has been working on this new game for more than a decade. But, the trailers reveal something that’s truly next-level.
It’s still a game we have not played, however. The excitement is very real, the pics look amazing, and if the people developing it say so, it sounds like it’s amazing too. In addition to that, we wait!

My uncle approached me and asked me what GTA 6 was about recently. I did my best to explain, but just pulled up the trailer on my phone. He saw it, slowly nodded and said ‘that looks like Miami.
Yeah. It really does.