The numbers around Grand Theft Auto, the 27-year-old video game franchise from Rockstar, are mind boggling.

The five versions of GTA have sold more than 400 million units (including sales across various platforms and consoles, re-releases and in-game purchases), with the most recent – Grand Theft Auto V – selling more than 200 million units.

More than A$12.5 billion in revenue has been generated by the franchise.

GTA VI trailer.

But GTA V was released in 2013, and fans are getting itchy.

Rockstar Games dropped a 90-second teaser last year and on YouTube it’s generated more than 225 million views and 942,000 comments. A second trailer is due within weeks.

Grand Theft Auto VI will drop in 2025, Rockstar promises, and in the first trailer the scenes are set in what will be the third incarnation of Vice City in Miami. 

GTA VI trailer.

The makers are keeping it classy, with the trailer showing women in various states of undress, including at a strip club, rolling about in mud in a USA bikini, and twerking on top of a moving vehicle.

But, to be fair, there is also a bloke in a g-string and a sun visor watering his garden.

GTA VI trailer.

Such is Grand Theft Auto’s impact on the gaming industry, other publishers are said to be playing wait-and-see, per Bloomberg. 

“Anticipation is so high that some competing game publishers are waiting as long as possible to commit to their release dates for the [Northern] fall, according to people familiar with their deliberations …  The publishers want to see whether GTA 6 will make its deadline or slip into 2026.”

The goal is to keep their own games’ release date as “far, far away” from GTA VI as possible.