Rockstar Games just dropped our first look at Grand Theft Auto VI today. That look, however, came without a concrete release date. We only have a year-long release window in 2025, with no PC in sight. Is this enough to help us narrow down GTA VI release dates for the consoles? And can we then use that info to speculate on when GTA VI will arrive on the PC? Well, not by itself. But combine this with some more info and Rockstar’s historical track record, and we might just have enough to go by.
The key to this informed speculation is Take-Two’s quarterly earnings report. Earlier this year, Take-Two issued a press release alongside its earnings report in which it predicted a significant inflection point in the Fiscal Year 2025. Specifically, Take-Two forecast net bookings of $8 billion, which is a significant uptick compared to its net bookings of $5.3 billion last year. Here’s a quote from their official release:
For the last several years, we have been preparing our business to release an incredibly robust pipeline of projects that we believe will take our company to even greater levels of success. In Fiscal 2025, we expect to enter this new era by launching several groundbreaking titles that we believe will set new standards in our industry and enable us to achieve over $8 billion in Net Bookings and over $1 billion in Adjusted Unrestricted Operating Cash Flow. We expect to sustain this momentum by delivering even higher levels of operating results in Fiscal 2026 and beyond.
Even at the time, it was speculated that such a significant uptick in revenue is only possible with the presence of a major franchise which, in this case, happens to be GTA VI. Also worth noting is that Take-Two’s Fiscal Year 2025 runs from April 2024 to May 2025. And with Grand Theft Auto VI slated to release in 2025, my bet is on it arriving some time in Q1 of 2025. If I have to be more specific, I’d say the console release of GTA VI will mimic the release schedule of GTA IV and should be currently slated for March 2025.
Note that I’m using the term “slated” here. This means while there remains every chance of the game being delayed, the first trailer that brings forth a concrete release date should have a March 2025 date listed on it.
Historically, the PC version of a Grand Theft Auto game has been 1 to 1.5 years behind the console editions. This gap was probably the shortest with GTA IV as its PC version arrived the same year, 7 months after the console versions launched. That said, times have changed now. Take-Two undoubtedly expects a Grand Theft Auto game to have a longer lifecycle, fueled by continuous updates, top-tier support, and GTA Online. Compared to GTA games of the 2000s which saw a new version every few years, we’ve only had one GTA game in the 2010s. The insane complexity of the world in GTA VI displayed in the trailer only makes it all the more complicated to switch to a new game soon. We’re therefore looking at a game with a 5-year lifecycle at a minimum.
To maximize such a mammoth game’s revenue, Rockstar would be looking to spread out releases a bit more and allowing the console version to breathe and sell before proliferating GTA VI to other platforms. This rules out the PC version coming out in 2025. A 2026 release, therefore, sounds a lot more likely, seeing as the PC version arrives 1 to 1.5 years after the console version.
Now this is where things get tricky. The PC version could release any time between March to September (or at most October) of 2027. Rockstar hasn’t released a core GTA game between the months of November to February. My best guess here would be they aim for a March 2026 release for the PC, with delays shifting it down to September 2026 or October 2026.
This is obviously all speculation at this point. Knowing Rockstar’s penchant for delays, if GTA VI does not make its originally intendend 2025 date, it’ll naturally have a cascading effect. Even so, given that Rockstar has been working on the game for well over a decade now, I expect delays to be minimal and in the 6-month range. A delay then should push GTA VI to a September 2025 release date and a PC version out to March 2027, mirroring GTA V‘s schedule.
To sum up then, here’s my take on release dates.
Grand Theft Auto VI should release for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in March 2025, before arriving to the PC a year later between March 2026 to October 2026.
