GTA 5 launched on September 17, 2013 and became one of the best-selling games of all time. It earned $1 billion in just three days and has sold more than 230 million copies. If you never finished it, or it has been a while, here is everything you need to know.
The three heroes
GTA 5 gives you three playable characters, and you can switch between them almost anytime.
- Michael De Santa: a retired bank robber living a rich, unhappy life in Los Santos. He made a secret deal with the FIB to escape his old life, and his family is falling apart.
- Franklin Clinton: a young guy from South Los Santos who wants something bigger than small-time street crime. Michael becomes his mentor.
- Trevor Philips: Michael's old partner from the bank robbery days. Loud, unpredictable and dangerous, he lives out in the desert and thinks Michael is dead until he finds out the truth.
The story in broad strokes
It starts small. Franklin meets Michael, and a family problem pulls Michael back into crime. He has to pay a large debt, and the quickest way to get money is the old way: a robbery. Soon the old crew is back together, and Trevor finds out that his "dead" friend is very much alive. That secret, and what happened years ago, hangs over the whole game.
Then the government steps in. Corrupt agents from the FIB know about Michael's past and force the crew to do dirty jobs for them, often against their rival agency, the IAA. The three are stuck between agents who can destroy them at any moment.
The heists are the heart of the game. You plan each one, choose an approach, pick your crew, gather gear and then pull it off, often switching between the characters mid-job. Each heist gets bigger and crazier, building up to one last, massive score.
Along the way, the crew also works for Devin Weston, a powerful and arrogant billionaire. That deal goes badly, and he becomes one more enemy who wants them gone.
The three endings explained
Near the end, Franklin has to make an impossible choice. The game gives you three options:
| Ending | Franklin's choice |
|---|---|
| A | Kill Trevor |
| B | Kill Michael |
| C: "Deathwish" | Refuse both and team up with Michael and Trevor against all their enemies |
Endings A and B are dark and leave Franklin alone with what he did. Ending C is the fan favorite: all three heroes survive and deal with the people who were hunting them.
Which ending is canon?
Rockstar has never made an official statement, but there is a strong hint. In The Contract, a GTA Online update from 2021, Franklin appears years later, running his own business. Because of what we see there, most fans read it as implying that Ending C is canon. It is a hint, not a confirmed answer, so treat it that way.
GTA 5's long life
Few games have lived this long. GTA 5 came out on PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 17, 2013, then arrived on PS4 and Xbox One on November 18, 2014 and on PC on April 14, 2015. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions followed on March 15, 2022, and the PC Enhanced edition arrived on March 4, 2025. GTA Online launched on October 1, 2013 and is still running.
People are still playing it right now:
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See all →Next up: GTA 6
The next chapter is set in Leonida and its Vice City, with a new story and new characters. GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
GTA VINovember 19, 2026Get ready with our GTA 6 hub, meet the new leads in GTA 6 characters, or compare the two games in GTA 6 vs GTA 5. Want to mess around in Los Santos one more time first? Grab the GTA 5 cheats.
