Highlights

  • Grand Theft Auto 6's release window remains unclear, with rumors suggesting a later 2025 launch date is more likely than early 2025.
  • Reports of reduced revenue projections for 2025 indicate a potential delay in GTA 6's release, allowing Rockstar more time for development.
  • The franchise's historical release pattern points towards a Q4 launch window for GTA 6, aligning with previous titles like GTA 5 and Vice City.

Discussion around Grand Theft Auto 6 is still rampant following the December release of its first official trailer, with the title gearing up to be one of the most anticipated projects of all time. This trailer offered a ton of useful information, including reveals about the protagonists of the release and its core setting, but there are still some important details that remain ambiguous.

It is confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch at some point during 2025, but a more exact release window is still unknown. Of course, looking back at the release dates of past GTA titles gives a good impression of when Grand Theft Auto 6 may come out, but a recent report regarding the game's launch allows for an even narrower potential window to be assumed.

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Grand Theft Auto 6 Shouldn't Be Expected to Have an Early 2025 Release Window

With Grand Theft Auto 5 having been released over a decade ago, it is no wonder that so many players want to get their hands on GTA 6 as soon as possible. While it would be fantastic to assume that Grand Theft Auto 6 has the potential to be released in early 2025, the release pattern of past titles for the franchise makes this an unlikely prospect:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto 4

Grand Theft Auto 5

Release Date

October 29, 2002

October 26, 2004

April 29, 2008

September 17, 2013

The franchise has been quite consistent with September/October releases over the years, with Grand Theft Auto 4 providing the only major deviation from this trend. This led to some belief that Grand Theft Auto 6 could see an early release window around April 2025, although recent reports suggest that an early 2025 release for the project is completely off the table.

A Later 2025 Release For GTA 6 Gives Rockstar the Time it Needs

Reports suggest that TakeTwo Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar, has released updated revenue projections for 2025, with its initial figure of $8 billion decreasing to $7 billion. This loss of $1 billion in projected revenue is most likely concerning Grand Theft Auto 6, with this perhaps being an indication of a delayed release for the project. While not confirmed, this lower revenue projection could indicate that GTA 6 was originally planned to have a much earlier release window in 2025, but it is understandable if this has been pushed back by Rockstar.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is already being billed as a massively ambitious title, and Rockstar will want to make sure that it has enough time to deliver on the project without making promises on an earlier release date. Of course, GTA 6 has also had to contend with extensive leaks since 2022, increasing the likelihood that the game's initial release date may have been pushed back.

With these updated projections in mind, it seems that a Q1 2025 release window for Grand Theft Auto 6 is extremely unlikely, meaning the title probably will not follow the same release pattern as Grand Theft Auto 4. Instead, it is much more likely that GTA 6 will follow in the footsteps of GTA 5, San Andreas, and Vice City with a Q4 release window, crucially giving Rockstar more time to deliver on such a momentous project.