GTA 6 Fans Just Got Terrible News About The Release Date

After the ridiculous success of "Grand Theft Auto V," it was a foregone conclusion that "Grand Theft Auto VI" was inevitable. Publisher Rockstar Games was often cagey about the topic, refusing for years to outright confirm that "GTAVI" was in development, but it largely went without saying that the game was inevitable. However, a massive Rockstar leak in 2022 that revealed not only details about "GTAVI" but even video footage forced the developer's hand, and the first official announcement and reveal trailer were both out before the end of 2023.

One of the biggest surprises of the trailer was that it also included a release window. Though a specific month wasn't mentioned, it was promised that "GTAVI" would be out sometime in 2025. Rockstar then spent the next nearly year and a half sticking to its guns on that, with no change to the 2025 window. Speculation ran the gamut from hopeful optimism that we'd indeed see "GTAVI" by the end of 2025 to those who were skeptical and believed that the game would be delayed considering how quiet Rockstar was when it came to sharing additional information about it.

Sure enough, on the morning of May 2, 2025, Rockstar announced that "Grand Theft Auto VI" has been pushed to May 2026.

Trying to look on the bright side of things, Rockstar has at least announced a concrete date on when it plans to release "Grand Theft Auto VI." Unfortunately, that date isn't in 2025. As of this writing, the release date for "GTAVI" is May 26, 2026. In addition to apologizing for the delay, the statement on Rockstar's website reads, "We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve."

Despite most other open world games, which are often rife with glitches, crashes, and performance issues at launch — problems that sometimes continue on for months after release, if not indefinitely — a Rockstar game typically comes right out of the gate fully polished and not immediately needing huge patches to get things in order. Whereas other publishers might have just rolled the dice and pushed "GTAVI" out this year in time for the holidays in whatever state it was in — and then patched as needed — that's not the precedent Rockstar has set over the last few generations with "Grand Theft Auto V" and both installments of "Red Dead Redemption."

"Grand Theft Auto V" has made a bigger profit than any other media product, ever. That includes not only video games, but movies, TV shows, albums, books — everything. While a decent chunk of that comes just from copies sold of the original game and its various re-releases, there is also all the money that people have spent on DLC and various upgrades and cosmetics for "GTA Online," which has become a massive financial ecosystem all its own over the years.

Needless to say, analysts are predicting that "Grand Theft Auto VI" will eventually take that crown from "GTAV." In fact, some believe that it has the potential to be the biggest entertainment launch ever, even eclipsing "GTAV," which needed some time to slowly build up the sales and profits necessary to earn its current title. And all this from a video game that, as of now, has only been officially confirmed for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X. Should "GTAVI" eventually be ported to PC, as most assume it will (or even Nintendo's Switch 2, which is apparently a possibility), its path to smashing records for media product profits seems all but assured.