GTA VI: Release Date, Price, Map Size, and Everything Rockstar Has Confirmed

Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It has been 13 years since Grand Theft Auto V, a game that went on to sell a reported 225 million units and become the second-best-selling game of all time by verified sales figures. The sequel is, by most measures, the most anticipated entertainment product ever made, and after two delays, a record-shattering trailer, and a marketing campaign that finally kicked into gear this summer, the finish line is in sight.

Here is everything Rockstar has actually confirmed, separated from the rumors.

The road to November 19

Serious development on GTA VI began in late 2018, after Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped, though preliminary work dates back to 2014. Rockstar published the first trailer on December 4, 2023, to mark the studio's 25th anniversary. It broke the record for the most views of a non-music YouTube video in 12 hours with 46 million views, and hit 93 million views within 24 hours, making it the third most viewed video of all time at that point.

The trailer carried a 2025 release window. In May 2025, Rockstar pushed the game to May 26, 2026. Six months later came the second delay, to November 19, 2026. Each delay was announced with a brief statement about needing more polish time, and the second one sent Take-Two's stock down as much as 18% on the day. In February 2026, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed the November date was on track and said the marketing campaign would begin in summer 2026. It did: a nearly 30-minute Extended Look premiered on Netflix on August 27 and passed 30 million views in four days, becoming the streaming platform's most-watched release of its premiere week.

What it costs

GTA VI's Standard Edition costs $80 and the Ultimate Edition costs $100, confirming analyst predictions of a $70 to $80 base price rather than the feared $100 standard edition. Pre-orders of both editions include the Vintage Vice City Pack, a bundle of in-game items including a '55 Vapid Stanier sedan, the Shore Court Garage near Ocean Beach, and outfits for both protagonists. Digital pre-orders also include a free month of GTA+, with its monthly GTA$500,000 deposit and Shark Card bonuses.

The Ultimate Edition adds high-end vehicles, weapons, clothing, and story content, plus two exclusive vehicle mod shops and an Ultimate Edition Upgrade path for Standard owners. One detail sparked real controversy: the physical edition ships as a digital code in a box, with no disc. And for collectors with deep pockets, Rockstar announced the $399 Goodtime State Vice City Collection on September 24, a box of Oakley sunglasses, a New Era hat, a Macca the Gator figure, and other merchandise that does not include the game.

The biggest world Rockstar has ever built

GTA VI returns to Vice City, Rockstar's Miami analog, for the first time since 2002, but the city now sits inside Leonida, a fictionalized Florida that Rockstar calls the largest world it has ever created. Art director Aaron Garbut told Game Informer the map is roughly double the size of GTA V's and denser, with obsessive detail on rooftops, alleyways, and building interiors. Garbut describes Florida as America dialed up to 11, and Rockstar's research trips included nighttime ride-alongs with former police officers and visits to the Everglades and the Keys.

Leonida has six regions: Vice City itself, the Leonida Keys, the Everglades-inspired Grassrivers, the faded tourist traps of Port Gellhorn, industrial Ambrosia, and Mount Kalaga National Park on the northern border. Wildlife is a genuine system, not set dressing: Rockstar reports more than 170 animal species, including around 60 types of birds and 30 land mammals, plus sharks, whales, and jellyfish.

Thirteen years after GTA V, Rockstar is betting that a bigger, denser Florida is worth the wait.

Jason and Lucia

For the first time in a mainline entry, GTA VI has two playable protagonists. Jason Duval grew up around grifters, did a stint in the Army, and now runs errands for the drug trade in the Leonida Keys. Lucia Caminos, a Liberty City native trained in combat sports by her father, enters the story fresh out of Leonida Penitentiary. She is the series' first female lead.

When an easy score goes wrong, the pair find themselves, in Rockstar's words, on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, caught in a criminal conspiracy stretching across Leonida. The Bonnie and Clyde parallel is deliberate, but with a twist: players can influence whether Jason and Lucia stay friends or become a couple, though the partnership itself cannot be broken.

What is still unknown

The PC version remains the biggest open question. Rockstar has not announced one, listing only PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. History says it is coming: GTA V took 19 months to reach PC, Red Dead Redemption 2 took 12. GameSpot's estimate of Q1 2028, about 15 to 18 months after consoles, is reasoned analysis, not an official date. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has also suggested GTA VI's online multiplayer could arrive sometime in 2027.

What is confirmed keeps growing. In early October, Rockstar revealed six new radio stations for the game, including Cocoteo FM for Latin music, Back Country Radio for country, and AfroBank FM for African music, all previewable on Rockstar's site. That followed the GTA VI: The Album announcement with 34 tracks from artists including Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen, and Keith Richards. LOVE Magazine's Issue 27, released October 5, carried new screenshots and a Rockstar interview about the game's satirical take on the modern American dream. Ratings boards have weighed in too: the ESRB rates it M for Mature with Strong Sexual Content and Use of Drugs and Alcohol, plus in-game purchases, while PEGI rates it 18. Six weeks out, the drip feed has become a firehose.