GTA 6: Release date, leaks, and more

The world has changed a lot since 2011. We've been through a pandemic, a new King in England, and the death of Twitter. And through all of that, the only constant that's remained is Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V. The first trailer for Rockstar's genre-defining game was released 12 years ago, and since then, fans have been clamoring for the studio's next installment, Grand Theft Auto VI.

There have been several leaks for what is shaping up to be a massive gaming experience. So we've gathered everything we could find on the internet about when fans can expect a release date, trailer, and more for Grand Theft Auto VI.

GTA 6 release date rumors

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but don't expect a GTA VI release date anytime soon. The only official announcement from Rockstar about GTA VI came in the form of an "it exists" statement from the developer in February 2022. Since then, nothing.

Some on the internet, like this Redditor, have looked into recent statements by GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive's CEO Strauss Zelnick. Speaking about the company's quarterly financial reports in August, the CEO stated that Take-Two would see a "significant inflection point" in fiscal 2025. Which, in Wall Street speak, means a big change is coming — like perhaps a new GTA.

Next year is not off the cards, however, thanks to Microsoft. In July 2022, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg reported that "current and former Rockstar staff" expected GTA 6 to be at least 2 years away. On top of that, during its, at the time, ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft wrote to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that "The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to be released in 2024."

Rockstar itself added fuel to the 2024 fire by officially confirming the first GTA6 trailer will air in early December.

GTA 6 leaks

Despite not even being close to a potential release, we do have a lot of information on some of the basics of the game, thanks to some leaks. In September of last year, we covered a massive dump of an in-development build of GTA 6 that gave us plenty of juicy information. The biggest of which is that, for the first time ever, GTA will feature a playable female protagonist named Lucia.

On top of that, it seems that the series may be making a return to the Miami-inspired Vice City and that buildings will be enterable, with the game placing an even bigger focus on heists and robberies.

The leak was unprecedented and massive and was scrubbed from the internet. You'd be hard-pressed to find any of the footage on Reddit or the official GTA forums, and if you ask for it you might get banned. A 17-year-old UK citizen was arrested last year in connection to the Rockstar hack, and it seems he was affiliated with the known hacker group “Laspus$.”

These are all rumors, of course, and leaks of in-development gameplay are subject to change. Grand Theft Auto VI is still a long way away from being playable, but at least we know that Rockstar is shooting for the moon on this one, which is enough to excite any fan.

UPDATE: Nov. 8, 2023, 10:04 a.m. EST Updated with official trailer confirmation from Rockstar.