Rockstar Games has officially confirmed that hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI is now delayed until May 26, 2026, pushing the highly anticipated sequel nearly a year past its originally expected launch window.
The delay isn’t entirely unexpected. Rockstar is notorious for moving timelines to hit a standard of excellence. In their statement, the company thanked fans for their patience and reassured them that the extra development time will be used to ensure GTA VI is “the game we know it can be.” Here’s hoping it won’t be a year of crunch for the gaming company, which is notorious for pushing its developers to work long hours to finish games.
This announcement comes after GTA VI’s record-breaking debut trailer in December 2023, which gave fans a taste of the game’s modern take on Vice City and introduced Lucia, the series’ first female protagonist. Since then, speculation has been high and hopes even higher. The reaction on sites like Twitter has been as expected, with several gamers expressing disappointment in humorous ways.
PC gamers realising they have to wait until 2028 to play GTA 6 now pic.twitter.com/OblUyYwwn3
— Music Stylist (@ItsNewYokio) May 2, 2025
It’s a frustrating wait, especially for a community that’s been replaying the previous title, GTA V, across three console generations and nearly 12 years. Still, most longtime fans understand the tradeoff. Rockstar’s reputation for deep world-building, storytelling, and emergent chaos means that when a delay happens, it’s usually worth it. As long as we’re not getting a buggy, half-baked mess à la Cyberpunk 2077 at launch, it’s likely that most players would rather wait.
Of course, GTA VI isn’t the first game to be significantly delayed, including Nintendo’s Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Rockstar’s own Red Dead Redemption 2, both of which impressed reviewers and gamers alike.
Because, let’s be honest, GTA fans will be there on day one ready with their wallets to grab the game and drive like they’ve never driven before.