Grand Theft Auto is one of the longest running series in games, and one of the easiest to get confused about. There are numbered games and named games, handheld spin-offs, expansions, remasters and re-releases on almost every generation of hardware. If you want to track which ones you have played, or play them in order before Grand Theft Auto VI, it helps to see the whole line in one place.
This timeline covers the main releases by year. Dates are original release years for the first platform; many games came to other systems later.
Who makes Grand Theft Auto
The series started at DMA Design, a studio in Dundee, Scotland. DMA Design was later brought into Rockstar Games and renamed Rockstar North, based in Edinburgh, which has led development on the main games ever since. Rockstar Games is owned by Take-Two Interactive. Other Rockstar studios have worked on ports and handheld entries over the years.
The top-down era (1997 to 1999)
| Year | Game | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Grand Theft Auto | Liberty City, San Andreas, Vice City | Top-down view, PC and PlayStation |
| 1999 | Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 | London | Expansion for the original |
| 1999 | Grand Theft Auto 2 | Anywhere City | Still top-down; gang respect system |
The first two games are seen from above, with small cars and pedestrians and a loose mission structure. They introduced the city names that the series kept reusing: Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas.
The 3D era (2001 to 2006)
| Year | Game | Setting | First platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Grand Theft Auto III | Liberty City | PlayStation 2 |
| 2002 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | Vice City, 1986 | PlayStation 2 |
| 2004 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | San Andreas, early 1990s | PlayStation 2 |
| 2004 | Grand Theft Auto Advance | Liberty City | Game Boy Advance |
| 2005 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | Liberty City | PlayStation Portable |
| 2006 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | Vice City | PlayStation Portable |
Grand Theft Auto III moved the series into a full 3D city and set the template that most open world action games still follow. Vice City and San Andreas built on it within three years, and both are still among the most remembered games of the PlayStation 2 generation. In 2021 Rockstar released remastered versions of III, Vice City and San Andreas together as Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, The Definitive Edition.
The HD era (2008 to 2013)
| Year | Game | Setting | First platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Grand Theft Auto IV | Liberty City | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| 2009 | Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | Liberty City | Nintendo DS |
| 2009 | Episodes from Liberty City | Liberty City | Xbox 360 |
| 2013 | Grand Theft Auto V | Los Santos and Blaine County | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
Grand Theft Auto IV brought a heavier, more grounded tone and a rebuilt Liberty City. Its two story expansions, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, were later sold together as Episodes from Liberty City.
Grand Theft Auto V followed in 2013 with three playable protagonists and GTA Online, the multiplayer mode that has kept the game alive for more than a decade. It was re-released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2014, on PC in 2015 and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2022. The GTA V game file lists every date.
Grand Theft Auto VI
Rockstar confirmed that the next game was in development in 2022 and released the first trailer in December 2023. The game is set in Vice City and the surrounding state of Leonida, a fictional take on Florida, and follows two protagonists, Lucia and Jason.
The release date has moved twice. The first trailer said 2025; the game was then dated for May 26, 2026, and later moved to November 19, 2026, which is the date as of October 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. No PC version has been dated. Always check Rockstar's official GTA VI page for the current date, and see the guide on tracking release dates for why dates move. For a running feed of confirmed news, ViceForge keeps a GTA 6 news page.
What order to play them in
The games are mostly standalone. Characters rarely carry over, and each game has its own continuity: the top-down games, the 3D era games and the HD era games are usually treated as three separate universes. That means you can start anywhere. A few practical paths:
- Before GTA VI: play Vice City for the original take on the setting, then GTA V for the modern style of play GTA VI is expected to build on.
- For the story arc of the 3D era: III, Vice City, San Andreas, then the two Stories games, which are prequels set in the same cities.
- For the HD era: IV, its two episodes, then V.
- For history: the original top-down game shows where the ideas came from, but it is a very different game from the modern ones.
Tracking the series in your backlog
Re-releases make GTA lists messy. One way to keep it clean is to add each game once, with the platform you will actually play it on, and treat GTA Online as a separate ongoing entry. The backlog tracker handles that in a few seconds.
If you record your sessions, GTA games produce a lot of unplanned moments worth keeping. ViceForge, made by the team behind this site, has a GTA game profile in its AI Gaming mode that looks for chases, crashes, action and big reactions in your recordings and cuts them into short clips. The guide on recording and clipping your best moments explains the full workflow, including how to do it by hand.
Checklist
- Pick a starting point: top-down, 3D era or HD era.
- Add each game once, with the platform you will play on.
- Keep GTA Online as its own ongoing entry.
- Put November 19, 2026 in your calendar with a link to Rockstar's page.
- Finish or drop long games in your backlog before GTA VI arrives.