Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games have announced another delay for Grand Theft Auto 6. Grand Theft Auto 6 is now scheduled to release on November 19, 2026.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed the delay on the most recent earnings call. The five month delay gives the team “additional time to finish the game with a high level of polish players expect and deserve. […] We’re confident they’ll deliver an unrivaled blockbuster entertainment experience.”
When it was first announced in 2023, GTA 6 originally had a 2025 release, before being delayed to May 2026 earlier this year. This makes the second major delay for what is easily the most anticipated video game of all time.
Grand Theft Auto is about as far from a family game as you can get. In fact, the open world, narrative-heavy crime series is historically used as the primary example of adults-only gaming that should not be played by the under-17 crowd.
The delay is significant across the gaming industry because of how gigantic of a franchise this is. At over 220 million copies sold, Grand Theft Auto 5 is the second best selling video game of all time, behind cultural juggernaut Minecraft. GTA 5 was released way back in 2013, and yet at any one time, over 100,000 people still play on Steam (between the Legacy and Enhanced versions). Much of that is bolstered by GTA Online.
Needless to say, the release of a Grand Theft Auto game is a huge moment for the gaming industry — and one many publishers would rather avoid with their own releases. Rockstar and Take-Two are now firmly set in the always-crowded holiday release window for next year.
Not only will the release date change affect game releases, it could even affect the next console cycle — people will absolutely purchase a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S just for GTA 6. GamesIndustry.biz is forecasting a 2027 release for the next PlayStation and Xbox, but that could be pushed out with GTA 6’s launch.
On the other hand, Q2 2026 just became a much more lucrative launch window!
Grand Theft Auto 6 is set in Vice City, a fictionalized version of Miami, Florida, and stars two playable protagonists, Jason and Lucia. It’s coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
