GTA 6 delayed to 2026; here's the confirmed release date

Rockstar Games has announcey that the release of GTA 6 has been postponed and will now release on May 26, 2026. The highly anticipated title, first announced in December 2023, was originally scheduled for launch in Fall 2025, a timeline that was repeatedly confirmed by Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company.

While GTA 6 now has an official release date, Rockstar did not release a new trailer or screenshots from the game. However, they assured fans that more information about the game will be shared “soon.”

GTA 6 delayed by a year; here's when it will release in 2026

“Grand Theft Auto VI is now set to release on May 26, 2026,” Rockstar stated in its sole official update regarding GTA 6 since its announcement. “We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game,” the studio added.

Rockstar explained that additional development time was necessary to ensure GTA 6 meets the high-quality standards fans expect. The delay is likely aimed at further polishing the game before its launch on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.

This postponement is likely to disappoint fans who have been waiting years for GTA 6’s release. When Rockstar released the first trailer on December 5, 2023, it simply confirmed the game would come out in 2025. Take-Two later reaffirmed this with a Fall 2025 launch window during a quarterly earnings call, a timeline that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has reiterated multiple times.

More recently, Zelnick stated that Take-Two and Rockstar chose not to disclose a specific release date for GTA 6 far in advance to preserve anticipation.

“We do have competitors who will describe their release schedule for years in advance, and we've found that the better thing to do is to provide marketing materials relatively close to the release window in order to create that excitement on the one hand and balance the excitement with unmet anticipation. We don't always get it exactly right, but that's what we're trying to do.”

With the GTA 6 release date now confirmed, other games scheduled for late 2025 will have a clearer schedule. Earlier this week, Gearbox announced it was moving up the launch of Borderlands 4 by two weeks to September 12, which has led to speculation that the studio was aware of Rockstar’s plans for GTA, a reasonable assumption given that Gearbox is also owned by Take-Two Interactive.