Opinion
Will GTA 6 Make Us Forget GTA 5?
Grand Theft Auto V came out in 2013 and is still one of the most played games in the world. GTA VI arrives on November 19, 2026. Can a new game make us forget one that refuses to leave? We looked at the numbers, and at how the series has handled this problem before.
By GTA VI Radio editors··4 min read
This is fan opinion, not reporting. Game facts come from the sources below; the judgements are ours.
Why GTA 5 lasted
GTA V launched on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 17, 2013, and GTA Online followed on October 1 of that year. It came to PS4 and Xbox One in November 2014, to Windows in April 2015, and to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in March 2022. Few games are re-released across three console generations, and fewer still keep selling through all of them.
Take-Two says the game has sold in nearly 230 million units as of its May 2026 earnings report. "Sold-in" means shipped to retailers or sold through digital platforms, not necessarily bought by a new player each time, but it is an enormous number for a game released in 2013. Wikipedia also records about $800 million on its first day, $1 billion in three days, and revenue above $10 billion over its life.
It was loved as well as sold
GTA V was a critical success as well as a commercial one. Wikipedia lists a Metacritic score of 97 for both the original PS3 and Xbox 360 releases and the PS4 and Xbox One versions, and 96 for the PC version. It won Spike VGX Game of the Year in 2013, a Golden Joystick Game of the Year, a Game Developers Choice Award for Best Technology, and the BAFTA for Best British Game and Best Game Design.
That matters, because replacing a game people respect is harder than replacing one they are tired of. Nobody needed convincing that GTA V was good. The question for GTA VI is not whether it is good enough but whether it can be different enough to justify the move.
The series has done this before
Nobody forgot Vice City when San Andreas came out, and nobody forgot San Andreas when GTA IV arrived. The series replaces defaults, not memories. Each new game gave players a reason to spend their next hundred hours somewhere else, and each time a large part of the audience moved.
The difference this time is the gap. San Andreas came out in 2004 and GTA IV in 2008, four years apart. GTA V came out in 2013, and GTA VI is arriving 13 years later. Rockstar has had far longer to build, and players have had far longer to get attached. Bloomberg reportedly says the new game took more than eight years to make.
What GTA 6 has shown
Rockstar has announced a game set in Vice City and the state of Leonida, with two leads, Jason and Lucia. It has detailed six radio stations, and says radio and podcasts can be heard in vehicles and on foot, which is new for the series. It has announced an album of 34 original tracks and a 30-track score by Justice, and pre-load begins on November 10. These are real signals of ambition, but they say little about whether the game will hold a player for years.
What GTA V had was a world that rewarded wandering, three leads with strong personalities, and an online mode that kept changing. We cannot yet tell how many of those GTA VI will match. Rockstar has not described how GTA VI's online will work, and it has not announced a PC release.
What would make people move
A living world and a live service players enjoy are what keep people in a game for a decade. If GTA VI's online mode feels better than GTA V's, and the single-player is as memorable, people will move over time. If not, GTA V will still be here, and a lot of people will keep playing it.
Three things will decide it, in our view: whether the world feels denser and more reactive than Los Santos, whether the two leads can match the trio's chemistry, and whether the online mode launches in good shape. Each of those is something we can only judge after release.
Our guess
GTA 6 will not make us forget GTA 5. It will change what people mean when they say "the new GTA", and that is a bigger win. GTA V's cultural footprint will outlast its place as the game everyone is playing, the way Vice City's did. Very soon, we start finding out.
Quick answers
- When does GTA 6 come out?
- Grand Theft Auto VI is due on November 19, 2026, according to Rockstar, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
- How many copies has GTA 5 sold?
- Nearly 230 million units sold-in as of Take-Two's May 2026 report.
- How long between GTA 5 and GTA 6?
- About 13 years, from September 2013 to November 2026.
- Is GTA 6 coming to PC?
- Rockstar has not announced a PC version.
Sources
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