Thirteen years. That is how long Grand Theft Auto fans have waited for a new mainline entry in the franchise. And now, with a locked release date, two trailers, confirmed characters, a fully revealed setting, and a gameplay system that promises to redefine open-world crime games, the wait is almost over.

This is your single source of truth for everything officially confirmed about GTA 6. No clickbait. No rumors dressed up as facts. Just everything Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have shown, said, or put on record, updated as new information drops.

Bookmark this page. We update it every time something new is confirmed.

GTA 6 Release Date

Official release date: November 19, 2026.

This is not speculation. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed the date during the company’s fiscal year 2026 earnings call on May 21, 2026, tying an $8 to $8.2 billion revenue projection for their next fiscal year directly to the November 19 launch. A company does not stake a record revenue forecast on a date it is not confident about.

The road to this date has not been straight. Here is the full timeline:

2025 (originally) — First announced launch window
May 2025 — First delay announced, game pushed to May 26, 2026
November 2025 — Second delay announced, game pushed to November 19, 2026
February 3, 2026 — Take-Two Q3 earnings reconfirm November 19
May 21, 2026 — Take-Two FY2026 earnings lock in the date as final

Rockstar’s reasoning for both delays was consistent: more time was needed to deliver “the level of quality you expect and deserve.” For a studio that spent eight years perfecting Red Dead Redemption 2, that language means something.

The marketing campaign, including Trailer 3 and pre-order openings, is confirmed to begin in late June 2026.

Platforms: PS5, Xbox, and What About PC?

Confirmed platforms: PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

GTA 6 is a current-generation exclusive. There is no PS4 or Xbox One version. Rockstar has made clear this game was built specifically for the hardware capabilities of modern consoles, and the graphics and world density shown in trailers back that up.

What about PC?

No PC release date has been announced, and Rockstar has not committed to one publicly. However, every major Rockstar release follows the same pattern. GTA V launched on PS3 and Xbox 360 in September 2013 and did not arrive on PC until April 2015, roughly 18 months later. Red Dead Redemption 2 followed a similar gap.

If history holds, PC players should expect GTA 6 sometime in mid-to-late 2028 at the earliest. The PC version, when it comes, will almost certainly be the definitive technical showcase, but that wait is real.

Setting: Welcome Back to Vice City

For the first time since 2002, Grand Theft Auto is going back to Vice City.

However, this is not a nostalgia trip. The original Vice City was set in 1986, soaked in neon and new wave. GTA 6’s Vice City is modern-day, a reimagined Miami in all its current complexity, contradictions, and chaos. Rockstar’s fictional state of Leonida (their version of Florida) wraps the city inside a broader world that stretches far beyond the downtown skyline.

The confirmed locations within Leonida paint a picture of a state, not just a city:

Vice City — the neon-lit urban core, reimagined for 2026
The Grassrivers — Rockstar’s version of the Florida Everglades
The Leonida Keys — a Florida Keys-style island chain (and where Jason and Lucia live at the start of the game)
Port Gellhorn — a working port city
Ambrosia — a smaller city or town
Mount Kalaga National Park — suggesting mountainous terrain and wilderness areas
Gloriana — a second state reportedly based on Georgia, which may appear in the game

This is not one city. This is a living fictional state built from Florida’s most iconic geography, beaches, swamps, suburbs, wealth, decay, and everything in between.

The Map: How Big Is It Really?

Rockstar has described GTA 6 as the biggest and most immersive evolution in the franchise’s history. Based on what has been confirmed, that description appears to hold up.

The GTA 6 map spans at least five counties and multiple cities. Current estimates place it at nearly twice the size of GTA V’s Los Santos, already one of the largest open worlds in gaming history.

What makes the size meaningful is what fills it. GTA 6 is rumored to feature over 700 enterable locations, including:

Nightclubs and bars
Motels and hotels
Restaurants and fast food joints
Pawn shops and gun stores
Fully explorable shopping malls
Skyscrapers with accessible interiors
The Vice City Metro Station

In GTA V, most buildings were background. In GTA 6, they appear to be destinations. The leap in interior density alone represents a fundamental change in how the world feels to explore.

Characters: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos

GTA 6 introduces two playable protagonists: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.

Lucia is the first female lead in Grand Theft Auto franchise history. That is not a small footnote; it is a structural shift in how Rockstar is telling this story.

Lucia Caminos

Lucia originally grew up in Liberty City (Rockstar’s version of New York). Her father taught her to fight, which explains her physical competence throughout the trailers. When we first meet her, she is wearing an ankle monitor, the tail end of a sentence that clearly did not straighten her out. The monitor is removed early in the game and does not affect gameplay.

Her arc moves from house arrest to an increasingly dangerous criminal conspiracy across Leonida. She is not a sidekick. She is a protagonist in the full sense, with her own motivations, her own history, and her own choices driving the story.

Jason Duval

Jason is ex-military with a background that appears to include paratrooper training (a visible tattoo on his shoulder). He and Lucia are in a relationship and share a rent-free arrangement in the Leonida Keys, in exchange for helping a man named Brian collect debts and run local shakedowns. It is the kind of setup that sounds manageable right up until it very clearly is not.

Jason brings a tactical, calculated energy to the partnership. Where Lucia is driven by something more personal, Jason feels like someone who has already learned the cost of making the wrong call.

How Character Switching Works

The character selection wheel offers three modes: Solo Jason, Solo Lucia, and a dual-protagonist mode where both are active. Switching is integrated into active missions, and the outcome of certain missions reportedly changes depending on whom you control at key moments. Voice lines also adapt based on mission stress and player choices, a level of narrative responsiveness that goes well beyond GTA V’s switching system.

The Story: A Modern Bonnie and Clyde

Rockstar has explicitly cited Bonnie and Clyde as the narrative inspiration for Jason and Lucia. Two people who found each other, found trouble, and cannot seem to separate the two.

The setup is deliberately grounded. They are not crime bosses. They are not kingpins. They are two people living in the Leonida Keys, doing small-scale criminal work for a man named Brian, trying to stay under the radar. An easy score goes wrong, the trailer’s opening phrase, “Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them,” sets the tone immediately, and that wrong turn pulls them into something much larger than debt collection.

The conspiracy they find themselves inside stretches across Leonida. What starts as survival becomes something harder to walk away from.

This storytelling approach mirrors what Rockstar did with Red Dead Redemption 2, trading GTA V’s three-protagonist satire for a tighter, more emotionally grounded narrative. Two characters. One story. Higher stakes per scene.

Gameplay: What’s Actually New

This is where GTA 6 separates itself most clearly from its predecessor. The confirmed gameplay changes are not cosmetic. Several of them are structural firsts for the franchise.

Combat and Stealth

Zip ties — Players can restrain NPCs non-lethally for the first time. This opens genuine stealth approaches to heists and robbery scenarios.
Human shields — a tactical option in police standoffs that has never appeared in GTA before.
Body carrying and looting — Borrowed directly from Red Dead Redemption 2’s playbook. Move bodies, loot fallen enemies, clean a crime scene.
Crouch-based stealth — Confirmed. The prone crawling seen in 2022-leaked footage was removed from the final build, but crouching stealth is in.
Hand-switching — Players can fire weapons with either hand, enabling more dynamic combat stances.
Under-fire animations — Characters physically react differently depending on the weapon being fired at them.
Melee overhaul — the most refined hand-to-hand system in the franchise’s history, with detailed animations for close-quarters combat.

Weapons and Inventory

Players can carry two rifles and two pistols on their person, with additional weapons stored in vehicle trunks, the same system as Red Dead Redemption 2.
Drive-by mechanics now allow shooting from car windows, truck beds, and even while swimming.
Known ammo types include pistol, shotgun, heavy, rocket, and spear ammunition.

Police AI and Wanted System

The six-star wanted system returns, but the AI running it has been rebuilt. Key changes:

At two stars, police attempt non-lethal responses before escalating
Surrender options are available, an entirely new dynamic for the franchise
Wanted responses are deliberately delayed, giving players more reaction time
A CCTV detection meter shows when security cameras are recording you
Witnesses must actively report crimes rather than triggering police responses automatically, giving players the option to intervene before the heat arrives

The World

Over 200 vehicles confirmed: cars, motorcycles, helicopters, planes, and boats, all with fully interactive interiors
Characters physically shift positions inside vehicles during high-speed chases
NPCs have memory, the world responds to what you have done in it
Dynamic weather simulation affects gameplay

Graphics and Technology

GTA 6 runs on Rockstar’s RAGE 9 engine, a significant technical leap over RAGE 8, which powered GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Confirmed visual features include:

Ray-traced global illumination
Strand-based hair physics
Dynamic clothing that reacts to movement, weather, and environment
Growing facial hair on characters over time
Volumetric clouds
Realistic water and reflection systems
Smart NPC behavior driven by advanced AI systems

The density of the world, thousands of active NPCs, dynamic traffic AI, real-time weather simulation, and two simultaneously tracked protagonists, makes GTA 6 one of the most CPU-intensive games ever built for consumer hardware.

GTA 6 Online

GTA Online made Rockstar billions of dollars over the thirteen years since GTA V launched. GTA 6 Online is confirmed and is expected to follow the same post-launch rollout pattern, meaning it will not be available on day one.

Leaks suggest GTA 6 Online could launch as early as Christmas 2026, roughly five weeks after the single-player release. What to expect based on Rockstar’s track record and confirmed information:

Heists designed around multiple players
Player-run businesses and criminal enterprises
Crew systems and persistent online reputation
A living world that receives ongoing updates for years after launch
Potential for new cities and regions added over time through expansions

GTA Online eventually became the primary revenue driver for Take-Two. GTA 6 Online will almost certainly be designed from day one with that long-term economy in mind.

Price: What Will GTA 6 Cost?

No official price has been confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two Interactive. However, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has publicly indicated a standard price range of $70 to $80, consistent with the AAA pricing trend that began with NBA 2K and has spread across the industry.

Given the scale of GTA 6’s development (estimated budget of $1 to $2 billion), a $79.99 standard edition seems likely. Special and Collector’s editions are expected but have not been officially detailed.

Pre-orders are expected to open in late June 2026 alongside the Trailer 3 marketing push.

Trailers: What We’ve Seen

Trailer 1 — December 2023

The first trailer shattered YouTube records. It confirmed the Vice City setting, introduced Lucia and Jason, and established the tone: cinematic, dangerous, emotionally grounded. The trailer’s opening shot of Lucia in prison and its closing image of the two protagonists together set up the Bonnie and Clyde dynamic that has defined the game’s marketing ever since.

Trailer 2 — May 2025

Trailer 2 officially confirmed full character names (Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos), showed more of the Leonida map, and dropped alongside the announcement of the first delay from Fall 2025 to May 2026. It expanded the scope of what we know about the world and the criminal conspiracy at the center of the story.

Trailer 3 — Coming Summer 2026

Take-Two has confirmed the full marketing campaign begins in late June 2026. Trailer 3 is expected to drop in that window and will likely be the first real look at confirmed gameplay mechanics, the combat system in action, and the broader scope of the story. This is the reveal that the entire gaming world is waiting for.

FAQs

When does GTA 6 release?

November 19, 2026, confirmed by Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive.

What platforms is GTA 6 on?

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S at launch. No PC date has been announced.

Will GTA 6 be on PS4?

No. GTA 6 is a current-generation exclusive.

Who are the main characters in GTA 6?

Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos. Both are fully playable protagonists.

Is Lucia really the first female protagonist in GTA?

Yes. Lucia Caminos is the first playable female lead in mainline Grand Theft Auto history.

Where is GTA 6 set?

In Vice City and the wider fictional state of Leonida, based on modern-day Miami and Florida.

How big is the GTA 6 map?

Estimated at nearly twice the size of GTA V’s map, spanning at least five counties and multiple cities.

Will GTA 6 have an online mode?

Yes. GTA 6 Online is confirmed, expected to launch in late 2026 after the single-player release.

How much will GTA 6 cost?

No official price confirmed. The expected range is $70 to $80 based on Take-Two CEO statements.

Is GTA 6 coming to PC?

Not at launch. A PC release is expected, but Rockstar has not announced a date. Based on past releases, a PC version could arrive 12 to 18 months after the console launch.

When does GTA 6 Trailer 3 come out?

No official date, but Take-Two confirmed the marketing campaign begins in late June 2026. Trailer 3 is expected during that window.

Can I pre-order GTA 6?

Pre-orders have not officially opened as of this writing. They are expected to become available in late June 2026.