GTA VI is not just another sequel. It takes the series back to Vice City, the neon city that made a whole generation fall in love with GTA in 2002. To understand why that matters, let's travel through the series from the very beginning.
The timeline: every main GTA game
| Game | Release |
|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto | 1997 |
| GTA 2 | 1999 |
| GTA III | October 22, 2001 |
| GTA: Vice City | October 29, 2002 |
| GTA: San Andreas | October 26, 2004 |
| GTA IV | April 29, 2008 |
| GTA V | September 17, 2013 |
| GTA Online | October 1, 2013 |
| GTA VI | November 19, 2026 |
The first two games were viewed from above. GTA III in 2001 moved the series into 3D, and everything changed. Just one year later came the game GTA VI now goes back to.
Vice City 2002: the original neon dream
GTA: Vice City launched on October 29, 2002. It was set in 1986, in a sunny, Florida-style city, and starred Tommy Vercetti, a gangster building his own empire. Pastel colors, sunsets and beaches made it feel like nothing else at the time.
San Andreas followed in 2004 with an entire state to explore, and GTA IV arrived in 2008. But Vice City kept a special place in fans' hearts, and that is exactly where Rockstar is heading next.
Why returning to Vice City matters
GTA VI is set in Leonida, Rockstar's fictional Florida, with Vice City as its biggest city. This time the story follows a new duo, Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval, instead of a single gangster.
For older fans, it is a homecoming. For younger players who never played the 2002 game, it is a chance to discover why people still talk about it. And Leonida is bigger than one city: the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park have all been revealed. Explore them in our map guide.
GTA V: the game that broke records
GTA V launched on September 17, 2013 and made $1 billion in just three days. It then kept coming back: PS4 and Xbox One in November 2014, PC in April 2015, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in March 2022, and the PC Enhanced version in March 2025.
By August 2026 GTA V had sold more than 230 million copies, and the whole series about 475 million. Its budget is often quoted as $265 million, but that number has never been officially confirmed.
Then there is GTA Online, launched on October 1, 2013. It grew into its own world, and GTA V on PC also became home to the GTA RP scene, where players act out stories on community servers. Rockstar even acquired Cfx.re, the team behind FiveM, on August 11, 2023. Try it yourself on our GTA RP server list.
Trailers that made history
GTA VI was revealed with Trailer 1 on December 5, 2023. It reached 93 million YouTube views in 24 hours, a Guinness World Record for a video game trailer. Its soundtrack was Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road".
Trailer 2 arrived on May 6, 2025 with the Pointer Sisters' "Hot Together", and it was even bigger: 475 million views across platforms in 24 hours. Then, on August 27, 2026, the 26-minute "Extended Look" showed real gameplay. Read our Extended Look recap.
The long road: two delays
Trailer 1 promised a 2025 release. On May 2, 2025, Rockstar moved the game to May 26, 2026. On November 6, 2025, it moved again to November 19, 2026, and that date was reiterated on August 7, 2026. Pre-orders opened on June 25, 2026, and pre-load starts November 12. All details are on our release date page.
GTA VINovember 19, 2026Nostalgia corner: classic cheat codes
Before you head back to Vice City in GTA VI, why not visit the original? In Vice City and San Andreas on PC, you simply typed a cheat word during gameplay. No menu, no phone, just type and boom. Here are the classics:
GTA: Vice City
| Effect | Code |
|---|---|
| Full health | |
| Full armor | |
| Weapon set 1 | |
| Weapon set 2 | |
| Weapon set 3 | |
| Spawn a Rhino tank | |
| Clear wanted level | |
| +2 wanted stars | |
| Pink traffic | |
| Flying cars | |
| Pedestrian riot | |
| Blow up nearby cars |
GTA: San Andreas
| Effect | Code |
|---|---|
| Health, armor, $250,000 and car repair | |
| Infinite health | |
| Never wanted | |
| Lower wanted level | |
| Weapon set 1 | |
| Weapon set 2 | |
| Weapon set 3 | |
| Spawn a Rhino tank | |
| Jetpack | |
| Hydra jet | |
| Hunter helicopter | |
| Infinite ammo | |
| Infinite lung capacity | |
| Max muscle |
Cheats are for single-player fun only. Want the modern version? See our GTA 5 cheats list, or find out if GTA 6 will have cheat codes.
