Highlights

  • GTA 6's reveal trailer will finally put rumors to rest and be a major industry moment.
  • The size of GTA 6's map should strike a balance between being big enough to satisfy fans but not too empty or bloated.
  • While other open-world games have gotten bigger, GTA 6's map size of 15-30 square miles would be ideal.

The anticipation surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6's upcoming reveal trailer is almost palpable, as it's been nearly a decade of rumors and speculation about the time. The upcoming GTA 6 reveal will also put several rumors to rest, and while it remains to be seen what all it entails, it's bound to be a big moment for the industry.

As it stands, Grand Theft Auto 6 will be the next entry in the beloved open-world crime franchise, but a lot has changed in the past decade or so since its launch. Open-world games have become bigger, and games like Elden Ring have innovated on open-world game design. But the most important part of any open world is how the world is filled in. If it's big but too empty, it leaves fans wanting more, yet filling in every space with activities can make it feel bloated. It's important Grand Theft Auto 6 strike a fine line, and at the very least, it's easy to trust Rockstar Games with this. However, one question many will no doubt be curious about as more and more of the game is revealed is how big the map of Grand Theft Auto 6 is/will be.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 have different strengths, but both are prime examples of open-world games. Looking at these should provide a good baseline for knowing how big the map should be, at least, in order to strike that aforementioned balance. Both are very close in size. Grand Theft Auto 5 clocks in at 31 Square Miles, while Red Dead Redemption 2 is 30 miles. However, they will feel very different. While GTA 5 has some areas of open roads and wilderness, players are often within various sections of the main city or the surrounding locations. Meanwhile, Red Dead Redemption 2 is more "open" as players explore the Wild West. The balance of each is remarkable as well. GTA 5 does not feel like it has any sort of open-world bloat, while Red Dead Redemption 2 does not feel empty.

Grand Theft Auto 5

31 Square Miles

Red Dead Redemption 2

30 Square Miles

Grand Theft Auto 5 Skyline

GTA 5, RDR2, and GTA 6 Map Sizes

The most obvious conclusion would be for GTA 6 to hit this size overall, putting it around 30 Square Miles. It would likely be more in the vein of GTA 5, meaning that the rumored world of Vice City would be densely packed with a few areas that open up. This would be ideal, but at the same time, it's known that GTA 5 and Red Dead 2 both had issues with crunch. The map size may have only been one factor in that, but as Rockstar moves away from crunch culture, it's been rumored before that GTA 6's map would be smaller but expand over time. That's a good method too, and a map of 15-20 Square Miles would work.

As such, it's worth pointing out that Skyrim's map size, another open-world benchmark, was just 15 Square Miles. It doesn't necessarily feel smaller than GTA 5 or RDR2, but that's part of some excellent design by Bethesda, a few visual trickeries, and so forth. Skyrim shows how a world can be made, be relatively small in comparison to other worlds, and still achieve its goals. Of course, one city will eat up a chunk of GTA 6, but it shows that GTA 6 could be as small as 15-20 square miles and be plenty of content for players to enjoy. At the same time, 30 has been what past Rockstar games have been, and while some could perhaps a game a decade later to be bigger than that, there's really no need. 15-30 would really be ideal for GTA 6.

How Maps Have Gotten Bigger In the Years Between GTA 5 and GTA 6

Open-world games have changed a lot, and specifically, they've gotten bigger. Recent years have proven, however, that bigger isn't always better. Elden Ring, which is perhaps the most innovative open-world game as of late, is actually comparable in size to GTA 5 and RDR2. It comes in at 30.5 Square Miles, but there are plenty of games that exploded beyond this.

Final Fantasy 15

780 Square Miles

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

90.7 Square Miles

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

53 Square Miles

There are just a handful of recent examples, but Final Fantasy 15 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey have often been accused of being empty. Each of these are good games in its own right, with plenty of fans for all of them, but it does pose the question if these games needed all of this map and if they could have been smaller and better. The answer will vary from person to person, and the answer will vary for Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto 6. But just because the open-world genre has seen expansion, change, and growth doesn't mean that every single change has been positive for the genre or positive for the industry. Whatever size GTA 6 size turns out to be, it needs to be something positive to the experience.