After years of leaks, speculation and one of the most-watched trailers in YouTube history, Grand Theft Auto VI finally has a hard launch date: 26 September 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Rockstar Games confirmed the date in a brief statement on Friday, accompanied by a second trailer that set social media alight within minutes of going live.

The game is set in a fictionalised Miami and its surrounding counties, returning the series to Vice City for the first time since 2002. The new trailer confirmed what leaks had suggested for over a year: players will control two protagonists, including Lucia, the first playable female lead in a mainline GTA title.

The delay from the original 2024 window appears to have been used productively. The trailer showed a seamless open world with a density of detail that made even recent open-world benchmarks look dated — pedestrians react to weather, traffic systems model individual driver behaviour, and the ocean surface responds dynamically to both weather and boat wakes.

Rockstar has said nothing publicly about a PC release, which has frustrated a significant portion of the fanbase. GTA V launched on PC 18 months after consoles; industry watchers expect a similar gap this time. A PC version before the end of 2026 seems probable but unconfirmed.

The economic stakes are extraordinary. GTA V has sold over 200 million copies since 2013 and still generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually through its online mode. Analysts at several investment banks have modelled GTA VI launch-quarter revenue in the $3–4 billion range — figures that would make it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history by a significant margin.

Pre-orders open Monday. Retailers are already reporting unusually high consumer interest in hardware bundles, suggesting the release may drive a meaningful bump in console sales even at this stage of the generation.

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GTA VI Has a Release Date — and Rockstar Is Not Budging