GTA 6 was confirmed on February 4, 2022 and launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. In between: a 2022 hack that leaked early footage, a first trailer that broke YouTube records, two delays, a Netflix premiere, a summer of leaks and record pre-orders on both the PlayStation and Microsoft stores. The table below is the full record, one row per event, each graded and linked to the page that covers it in depth.
Grades follow how we grade. Most rows are first-party Rockstar, Take-Two, Sony or Microsoft statements, or court records. Where a row rests on press reporting or an estimate, it says so.
Before 2022: how GTA 6 started
- 2014-2015. Preliminary work after GTA V; pre-production on “Project Americas” and Miami research trips begin in 2015 reported.
- Late 2018. Early development starts after Red Dead Redemption 2 reported.
- 2020. Principal production begins. Take-Two later said development began “in earnest” in 2020 reported.
- March 11, 2020. Co-founder and lead writer Dan Houser leaves Rockstar confirmed.
The long version is on GTA 6 development history.
The complete GTA 6 timeline, 2022 to launch
2022
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 4, 2022 | Rockstar Newswire says development of the next GTA is “well underway”. Development history | confirmed |
| Jul 27, 2022 | Bloomberg reports a Latina female lead in a Bonnie and Clyde-style duo and a fictional Miami. All later confirmed. First female protagonist | reported, later confirmed |
| Sep 18, 2022 | A hacker posts 90+ clips (about 50 minutes) of early-development footage on GTAForums. The 2022 leak | confirmed |
| Sep 19, 2022 | Rockstar confirms a “network intrusion” and says it expects no long-term effect on development. The 2022 leak | confirmed |
| Sep 22, 2022 | City of London Police arrest a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire, later named as Arion Kurtaj. The 2022 leak | confirmed |
2023
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Rockstar Los Angeles is set up, focused on NPCs. Development history | reported |
| Aug 2023 | A Southwark Crown Court jury finds Kurtaj carried out the acts behind the Lapsus$ offenses, including the Rockstar hack. The 2022 leak | confirmed |
| Nov 8, 2023 | Sam Houser’s “A Message from Rockstar Games” promises the first trailer in early December. Trailer 1 | confirmed |
| Dec 4, 2023 | Trailer 1 (1:31) goes live about 15 hours early after a leak. Reveals Vice City, Lucia, Jason and “2025”. Trailer 1 | confirmed |
| Dec 5-6, 2023 | YouTube reports 93M+ views in 24 hours; Guinness certifies 90,421,491 views and 8.9M likes. Trailer 1 | confirmed |
| Dec 21, 2023 | Kurtaj receives an indefinite hospital order. Rockstar put the hack’s cost at about $5M. The 2022 leak | confirmed |
2024
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2024 | Rockstar orders staff back to the office five days a week from April. Development history | reported |
| May 16, 2024 | Take-Two narrows the window from “Calendar 2025” to “Fall of Calendar 2025”. Delays | confirmed |
| 2024 | GTA VI wins Most Wanted Game at the Golden Joysticks and Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards. | confirmed |
2025
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | Photos of a PS5 dev kit running GTA VI, reportedly from Rockstar San Diego in 2021, appear on Reddit. Development history | reported |
| May 2, 2025 | Delay 1: Fall 2025 to Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Delays | confirmed |
| May 6, 2025 | Trailer 2 (2:47) drops unannounced, with 70 screenshots and eight official character profiles. Trailer 2 | confirmed |
| May 7-8, 2025 | Rockstar claims 475M views across platforms in 24 hours. Trailer 2 | confirmed (Rockstar claim) |
| Late Sep 2025 | Dan Houser says GTA VI is “not going to be a story I wrote”. Development history | confirmed |
| Oct 30, 2025 | Rockstar fires 31 UK staff, citing gross misconduct; the IWGB calls it union-busting. Firings and union | confirmed (firings) |
| Nov 6, 2025 | Delay 2: May 26, 2026 to Thursday, November 19, 2026. Delays | confirmed |
| Nov 6, 2025 | Take-Two FY26 Q2 earnings: Zelnick “excited and confident”; firings “unrelated” to the delay. Delays | confirmed |
| Mid-Nov 2025 | 200+ Rockstar North staff sign a letter demanding reinstatement; UK PM Keir Starmer calls it “deeply concerning”. Firings and union | reported |
| 2025 | Trailer 2 wins Best Game Trailer at the Golden Joysticks; GTA VI repeats Most Wanted and Most Anticipated. Trailer 2 | confirmed |
2026: January to August
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 12, 2026 | A UK employment judge denies the fired staff interim pay relief. Firings and union | reported |
| Feb 3, 2026 | Take-Two FY26 Q3: on track for Nov 19; physical delay rumors “not the plan”. Release date | confirmed |
| May 21, 2026 | Take-Two FY26 Q4: record $6.72B net bookings, FY27 guidance of $8.0-8.2B “driven by” GTA VI. Sales | confirmed |
| Jun 18, 2026 | Cover art revealed in a 33-second video; pre-orders set for June 25. Editions | confirmed |
| Jun 24, 2026 | Price confirmed: $79.99 Standard, $99.99 Ultimate. The $100 base-price rumor is dead. $100 rumor | confirmed |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Pre-orders open. Boxed copies contain a download code, not a disc. No disc | confirmed |
| Jun 29-Jul 20, 2026 | Forbes and others predict a summer “Trailer 3”. None comes that summer. Launch Trailer | rumour |
| Jul 16, 2026 | BBC reports Kurtaj moved to prison to await a retrial. The 2022 leak | reported |
| Aug 6, 2026 | Rockstar announces “An Extended Look” for August 27. Extended Look | confirmed |
| Aug 7, 2026 | Take-Two FY27 Q1: pre-orders “unprecedented and astonishing”; Netflix deal “first-of-its-kind”. Sales | confirmed |
| Aug 18-26, 2026 | CyberLeek posts at least 16 gameplay clips and a full map image. CyberLeek | confirmed (leak happened) |
| Aug 26, 2026 | Rockstar calls the leaks “heartbreaking for our team”. CyberLeek | confirmed |
| Aug 27, 2026 | An Extended Look (26:48) premieres on Netflix at 3pm ET, YouTube at 9pm ET. Extended Look | confirmed |
| Late Aug 2026 | Netflix: 31.1M views in four days, No. 1 in 87 of 93 markets. Extended Look | confirmed |
| Aug 29, 2026 | Rob Nelson: no monetization at launch. Zelnick: generative AI has “zero part”. Confirmed features | confirmed |
2026: September to November
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 3, 2026 | Two limited-edition GTA VI DualSense controllers announced. | confirmed |
| Sep 10, 2026 | The IWGB tribunal hearing opens in Glasgow. Firings and union | reported |
| Sep 17, 2026 | GTA VI: The Album announced: 34 original tracks, six singles out the same day. The Album | confirmed |
| Sep 24, 2026 | ”The Goodtime State - Vice City Collection” Collector’s Box goes on sale at $399.99. Collector’s Box | confirmed |
| Late Sep 2026 | A Game Informer cover story is reported; we have not seen the outlet’s page. | rumour |
| Oct 1-2, 2026 | ESRB rates the game M (Mature 17+). PEGI 18 is reported. Age rating | confirmed (ESRB) |
| Oct 7, 2026 | Xbox: no Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming to PC. Cloud gaming | reported |
| Oct 8, 2026 | Rockstar reveals six radio stations, from Cocoteo FM to Flash FM. Radio stations | confirmed |
| Oct 8, 2026 | CyberLeek posts a 24-minute “Extended Leek”; Take-Two files DMCA subpoenas. CyberLeek | reported |
| Oct 9, 2026 | Kurtaj retrial listed for Nov 9 at Woolwich Crown Court. The 2022 leak | reported |
| Oct 13, 2026 | GamesBeat reports a PC version targeted for Q1 2027. Unannounced. PC release | reported |
| Oct 14, 2026 | Rockstar’s Jennifer Kolbe denies the budget exceeded $1.5B, without giving a figure. Budget rumors | reported |
| Oct 15, 2026 | Launch Trailer (1:29) with Justice’s “Flower in a Hurricane”; Justice revealed as composer. Launch Trailer | confirmed |
| Oct 27, 2026 | A UK union recognition ballot is set for Nov 12-26. Firings and union | reported |
| Oct 28-29, 2026 | Edge cover: the map is “nearly as large as” GTA IV, GTA V and RDR2 combined; 23 radio stations reported. Map size | confirmed (map quote) |
| Oct 29, 2026 | Justice’s Original Score announced for Dec 11; single “Pusher” released. Justice score | reported |
| Nov 3, 2026 | Rockstar: pre-load opens Nov 10 and needs up to 212 GB. Pre-load | confirmed |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Launch Gallery of 39 new screenshots. Launch Gallery | confirmed |
| Nov 6, 2026 | Miami’s E11EVEN club rebranded “NINE1NINE Vice City” through Dec 6. Vice City | reported |
| Nov 9, 2026 | Take-Two FY27 Q2: launch “ten days away”, pre-orders at “unprecedented levels”. Q2 earnings | confirmed |
| Nov 9, 2026 | GTA VI: The Festival announced for Nov 21 in Miami. The Album | confirmed |
| Nov 9, 2026 | Kurtaj retrial scheduled to open. No outcome reported as of Nov 15. The 2022 leak | reported |
| Nov 10, 2026 | Pre-load opens. Rockstar confirms a 30fps target; PS5 Pro gets PSSR and ray-traced shadows. Pre-load live | confirmed |
| Nov 11, 2026 | Sony and Microsoft each call it the most pre-ordered game in their store’s history. Sales | confirmed |
| Nov 12, 2026 | Boxed code-in-box copies go on sale early; the union recognition vote opens. Firings and union | confirmed |
| Nov 12-14, 2026 | The Collector’s Box map leaks from a box sold early in Manchester. Map leak | reported |
| Nov 13, 2026 | Update 1.002.000 rolls out. Update 1.002 | reported |
| Nov 13, 2026 | A Macca & Friends in-game show teaser appears. Macca the Gator | reported |
| Nov 14, 2026 | Sensor Tower estimates 12M+ pre-orders; Zelnick says expectations are “being vastly exceeded”. Sales | reported (estimate) |
| Nov 18, 2026 | Reported review embargo. The US store unlocks at 9pm PT (midnight ET). Unlock times | reported |
| Nov 19, 2026 | Worldwide launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Album releases the same day. Release date | confirmed (scheduled) |
After launch: what is already scheduled
| Date | Event | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 17-18, 2026 | Closing submissions expected at the IWGB tribunal. Firings and union | reported |
| Nov 21, 2026 | GTA VI: The Festival at Mana Wynwood, Miami. The Album | confirmed |
| Nov 26, 2026 | The union recognition ballot closes. Firings and union | reported |
| Dec 11, 2026 | Justice’s Original Score album releases. Justice score | confirmed |
Where the dates disagree
- The first delay. Every source we checked dates it to May 2, 2025, except Gfinity, which said July 2025. May is right.
- The firings. Most outlets date them to October 30, 2025; some say November 2. Wikipedia counts 34 staff, against 31 in most reporting.
- The Album tracklist. The 34 songs are confirmed as a count; the full list comes from leaked vinyl packaging.
Start here
- Every GTA 6 delay, with Rockstar’s own wording.
- Development history, from Project Americas to finished game.
- The 2022 leak and the Arion Kurtaj case.
- The UK firings and union vote.
- For the videos themselves, see the media hub.