Timeline

The Road to Leonida

From the first leak to the biggest launch in gaming history.

November 19, 2026

🎮 GTA VI Official Release

Grand Theft Auto VI launches worldwide on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game becomes the biggest entertainment launch of all time, surpassing $1 billion in sales within the first 24 hours.

Release Worldwide
May 6, 2025

🎬 Trailer 2 Released

Rockstar releases the second trailer revealing the story of Jason and Lucia. The trailer features "Hot Together" by The Pointer Sisters and showcases 2 minutes and 47 seconds of gameplay and cutscenes. 167 million views in 24 hours.

Trailer Story Reveal
May 6, 2025

📅 Release Date Confirmed

Rockstar officially confirms the release date: November 19, 2026. Pre-orders go live the same day with three editions: Standard ($69.99), Special ($84.99), and Ultimate ($99.99).

Announcement Pre-Order
December 5, 2023

🎬 Trailer 1 Released

The world debut of GTA VI. The first trailer introduces Lucia and Jason, showcases the state of Leonida, and features "Love Is A Long Road" by Tom Petty. 282 million views total, 93 million in first 24 hours — the most-viewed game trailer ever.

Trailer World Record
September 2022

🔒 Major Gameplay Leak

Over 90 minutes of early development footage leaks online, showing gameplay mechanics, the map, vehicles, and characters. Rockstar acknowledges the leak and states it will not affect the development timeline. The leaker is later arrested.

Leak Development
February 4, 2022

✅ GTA VI Officially Confirmed

Rockstar Games officially confirms the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is in active development via a blog post on the Rockstar Newswire. This ends years of speculation and confirms the game is being built for next-gen consoles.

Announcement Confirmed
2020-2021

🔨 Active Development Begins

Following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018, Rockstar shifts full development resources to GTA VI. The game is built on an upgraded RAGE engine with ray tracing, advanced AI, and next-gen physics systems.

Development RAGE Engine
2018

🤠 Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar releases Red Dead Redemption 2, setting new benchmarks for open-world design, NPC AI, and environmental detail. Many of these systems are refined and expanded for GTA VI.

RDR2 Foundation