GTA 6 release date leaves fans broken as fears grow of a second delay
Rockstar's delay for GTA 6 has gone down as well as you'd expect with tortured fans, but some are seeing the bright side.
Rockstar’s delay for GTA 6 has gone down as well as you’d expect with tortured fans, but some are seeing the bright side.
After months of speculating when new GTA 6 footage could arrive, following the first trailer in December 2023, fans were dealt a cold blow by developer Rockstar this week.
As announced on Friday, May 2, GTA 6 has been delayed from autumn 2025 to May 26, 2026. This isn’t too surprising, as Rockstar famously delays most of its games, but the new date is very far away, considering publisher Take-Two insisted the game would make its original 2025 window on multiple occasions.
While the games industry at large needs titles like GTA 6 more than ever, it’s time to spare a thought for the fans who have been counting down the days for more information ever since the first trailer in December 2023.
‘Nothing like 13 years between games,’ one user wrote on the GTA Reddit in response to the news, referring to GTA 5’s September 2013 release date.
‘I believe [the] sun turns into a red giant before GTA 6 will come out,’ another joked (we hope).
Meanwhile, others on the same thread fear there might be another delay, as Rockstar has historically launched GTA games in either September or October (except for GTA 4, which launched on April 29, 2008).
‘Doubt it’s May 26 next year,’ one user wrote, with another adding: ‘Almost guaranteed to be delayed even further to Sept 2026, just like GTA 5 was.’
Over on X, many fans in the US woke up to the news of the delay, which served as a kick in the teeth to everyone’s Friday.
GTA 6 has been delayed Luke Dutch (@LukeDutchh) May 2, 2025
PC gamers realising they have to wait until 2028 to play GTA 6 now Music Stylist (@ItsNewYokio) May 2, 2025
Just woke up to GTA 6 delayed ???? 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) May 2, 2025
Everyone waking up to see this GTA 6 Tweet like… https://t.co/ekzAbs3Qwd DomTheBomb (@DomTheBombYT) May 2, 2025
However, some who haven’t yet invested in a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S are seeing the bright side, as they have more time to save up for the console.
‘GTA 6 delayed to 2026 so I have more one more year until I need to buy a PS5,’ a user on X wrote.
GTA6 delayed to 2026 so I have one more year until I need to buy a PS5 g h a u r a (@ghauraghaura) May 2, 2025
Every other game seeing GTA 6 is delayed to 2026 meaning they actually have a chance at winning GOTY TheNCSmaster (@TheNCSmaster) May 2, 2025
Broke people realising that they got another year to buy PS5 for GTA 6 Natsuki. (@twtZero_) May 2, 2025
With GTA 6 no longer on the table, this year’s gaming slate looks to be carried by the launch of the Switch 2 on June 5, 2025.
Elsewhere, Sony’s current slate includes Death Stranding 2 in June and Ghost of Yōtei in October, while Microsoft has Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2, and whatever else crops up during the Xbox summer showcase.
The first trailer was released in 2023 (Rockstar Games)Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
