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How long have we waited for GTA 6? More than 13 years since GTA V

The time since GTA V, confirmation of the next game and the first GTA VI trailer. How delays extended the wait and what audience figures actually show.

GTA6VC editorial teamPublished: October 25, 2026

GTA VI mural on a building wall featuring Lucia, Jason and the release date

The wait for GTA 6 has lasted more than thirteen years if we count from GTA V’s first release on September 17, 2013. As of October 25, 2026, that is 13 years, one month and eight days. If Rockstar’s scheduled November 19 release goes ahead, the gap between the two games will be 13 years, two months and two days. The wait since the next game was first confirmed is much shorter. Here are the different starting points and publisher Take-Two chief Strauss Zelnick’s explanation of the long gap, given at a TD Cowen conference in May 2026.

How many years have we waited for GTA 6, and where do we start counting?

The familiar starting point is GTA V, first released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2013. That is why people speak of a thirteen-year wait for the next major story-driven GTA. Later releases of GTA V on other platforms do not reset the clock.

The period since official confirmation is different. On February 4, 2022, Rockstar said active development of the next entry was underway. That announcement gave neither the GTA VI name nor a trailer or release window. It confirmed the project existed; it did not identify the day development began.

A third starting point is the first trailer. It appeared on December 4, 2023, ahead of its planned premiere following a leak. Take-Two’s press release and Rockstar’s official video listing use that date. Russian-language reports often give December 5 because, in Moscow and Samara, it was already the next night when the video appeared.

Starting event	Time until the scheduled November 19, 2026 release
GTA V’s first release, September 17, 2013	13 years, 2 months and 2 days
Confirmation of the next GTA, February 4, 2022	4 years, 9 months and 15 days
First GTA VI trailer, December 4, 2023	2 years, 11 months and 15 days

Each period describes a real wait, but begins at a different event. Saying the game was announced thirteen years ago confuses GTA V’s release with GTA VI’s announcement. Nor can the entire gap between releases automatically be called development time. We discuss its early stages and the arrival of the larger team in our article on how long GTA 6 has been in development.

For comparison, the gap from GTA IV’s first release on April 29, 2008, to GTA V was five years, four months and 19 days. The current wait is already more than twice as long. The scale is especially clear to players who remember GTA IV’s Liberty City and GTA V’s Los Santos and are now waiting for a new story in Vice City.

How the promised release window changed

When Rockstar first showed GTA VI publicly, it promised a release in 2025 without naming a day. In May 2024, Take-Two narrowed the window to fall 2025. This was a refinement of the existing plan, rather than a move to another year.

Two later announcements did push the release back.

Announcement	Release target	What changed for players waiting
December 4, 2023	2025	First official release window
May 16, 2024	Fall 2025	A narrower window
May 2, 2025	May 26, 2026	Moved beyond 2025; first exact date
November 6, 2025	November 19, 2026	Added 177 days to the previous exact date

The latest delay was five months and 24 days. No equally precise interval can be calculated for the first delay because “fall 2025” was a period, not a particular day. Adding the two delays into one exact day count without choosing an initial date would imply false precision.

In both announcements Rockstar said the extra time was needed for the game’s quality. Its November message explicitly acknowledged the prolonged wait and said the additional months were needed to finish polishing the game. Those statements explain the delays, but do not assign a cause or production stage to every one of the thirteen years.

Why did the next GTA take so long?

Zelnick was asked about the long gap between GTA games at the TD Cowen conference on May 27, 2026. In the available transcript he describes Take-Two’s policy: most of its series are not tied to an annual schedule, with sports games an exception. In his view, sequels released too often make it harder to maintain quality and can weaken interest in a series.

The publisher did not set a rule that the next GTA must arrive thirteen years later. Zelnick linked the gap to the time needed to make a strong enough game. He also pointed to GTA V editions for PC and newer console generations and to the launch and continued development of GTA Online, the multiplayer game set in GTA V’s world. This is a company executive’s explanation, not a year-by-year account of the work.

Those releases did not replace a new single-player story for people waiting for one. But it would also be wrong to say Rockstar released nothing after 2013. Alongside its work on GTA V and Online, the studio released Red Dead Redemption 2, a major western about the Van der Linde gang, on October 26, 2018.

The popular claim that “GTA Online made money, so GTA VI was deliberately held back” goes beyond the evidence we have. Online support and the long gap did coexist. That alone does not establish how much GTA V’s revenue affected GTA VI’s schedule. According to Zelnick, GTA V, GTA Online and related services help sustain interest in the upcoming game.

How many people are waiting for GTA 6?

Public data cannot give us an exact worldwide number of people waiting to play. Rockstar and Take-Two report views, sales and interest in their products, but these are not a census of prospective GTA VI players. One person can watch a trailer repeatedly and across several platforms. Another may be waiting without watching a trailer at all.

The first 24 hours of the two trailers show the scale of attention:

YouTube reported more than 93 million views for the first trailer in December 2023. A Guinness World Records entry gives a different figure, 90,421,491 views as of December 5. The sources do not explain the difference, so they cannot be combined into a single exact result.
In a prepared presentation in May 2025, Take-Two reported more than 475 million views for the second trailer in its first day across all platforms. That total cannot be compared directly with a YouTube-only figure for the first trailer.

Both numbers show enormous reach. Neither means exactly 93 million or 475 million people are waiting for GTA VI. GTA V copies sold and GTA VI preorders measure other things too: a purchase, a view and an intention to play do not map one-to-one.

Preorders, which opened on June 25, 2026, offer a more recent sign of demand. On Take-Two’s August 7 call, Zelnick called their level unprecedented but did not provide a number. He separately cautioned that preorders can be cancelled and future sales remain unknown. This is the publisher’s assessment, not an exact count of everyone waiting.

Another visible sign of sustained interest is GTA VI winning Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards in both 2024 and 2025. Those are two wins in a particular award category, not a count of the game’s future audience.

Is the wait over?

As of October 25, 2026, GTA VI is not yet out. Rockstar’s official site still lists November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The first trailer is no longer the only footage: the longer An Extended Look appeared on August 27, and a Launch Trailer appeared on October 15. The word “launch” in a trailer’s title does not itself mean the game is playable already.

The PC wait carries its own uncertainty. Rockstar has not announced a date for that version. Adding an arbitrary six months or a year to the console date therefore cannot produce a confirmed PC release day. We cover the official status and the basis of forecasts in our article on GTA 6’s PC release date.