The best game to play before GTA 6 is Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar’s most recent all-new game and the clearest look at how the studio builds a living world, with Grand Theft Auto V and the original GTA Vice City close behind. Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, so these are the games that make the last few weeks of waiting count.
We ranked these 12 on three things: how much each one sets you up for GTA 6 (Rockstar’s design, Vice City itself, a crime story told through two leads), whether you can still buy and play it today, and how much of it you can get through before launch. Eight are Rockstar’s own games; the other four are the crime games that come closest to what Rockstar has shown of Leonida. Every entry ends with where to play it today, checked against Rockstar’s site, Steam and the console stores on October 30, 2026. For the full back catalog, see our list of every Rockstar game in order, and for GTA 6 itself, our GTA guides hub collects everything we have written.
12. Hotline Miami
Why play it before GTA 6: Vice City is Rockstar’s Miami, and Dennaton Games’ top-down shooter is the most concentrated dose of neon-soaked, 1980s Miami crime you can play. Steam’s store page sets it in “an alternative 1989 Miami,” where a masked antihero takes anonymous phone calls and clears out the city’s criminal underworld one brutal room at a time. Each level is a short, punishing puzzle of doors, guns and timing, backed by a pounding synth soundtrack, and it is one of the shortest picks here, so it fits around a busy week. Our guide to what city GTA 6 is based on covers how Rockstar’s own Vice City lines up with the real Miami.
Where to play it today: Steam sells it on PC, Mac and Linux, and the Hotline Miami Collection, which adds the sequel Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, is on Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.
11. Bully
Why play it before GTA 6: Bully is Rockstar’s satire shrunk down to one school year. As 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins you work your way through the cliques of Bullworth Academy, from the jocks to the preppies and the nerds, in a small open town packed with classes, pranks and side jobs. It is the best way to see how Rockstar’s humor works without a gun in your hand, and since GTA 6 has a cast of local hustlers, rappers and oddballs, Bully’s character writing is a good warm-up. Our list of GTA 6’s revealed characters has Rockstar’s profiles of who you will meet in Leonida.
Where to play it today: Steam and the Rockstar Store sell Bully: Scholarship Edition on PC. Rockstar added Bully to the GTA+ Games Library for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S members in August 2024, and Bully: Anniversary Edition is on iOS and Android.
10. A Way Out
Why play it before GTA 6: GTA 6’s Lucia starts her story locked up: Rockstar says fighting for her family “landed her in the Leonida Penitentiary.” Hazelight’s co-op crime story starts in exactly that place, with two convicts, Leo and Vincent, planning a breakout and then a revenge job together. It is co-op only, played split-screen on one couch or online, and both stories run side by side on screen, which makes it the best preview of a crime story told through two leads at once. If you plan to play GTA 6 with a partner watching, this is the one to play with them first. Our guide to how Jason and Lucia’s relationship works covers what Rockstar has said about its own pair.
Where to play it today: PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam and the EA app). It runs on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S through backward compatibility, and its Friend’s Pass lets a friend on the same platform who does not own the game join you online for free.
9. L.A. Noire
Why play it before GTA 6: Rockstar published this 1947 detective story from Team Bondi, with Rockstar Leeds, and it shows the other side of a crime game: you play LAPD detective Cole Phelps, working cases through arson, conspiracy and murder rather than committing them. Its interrogations ask you to read suspects’ faces, and its recreation of 1940s Los Angeles is one of the most detailed historical cities Rockstar has put its name to. If GTA 6’s police and its Heat system interest you, playing a cop first is a fun contrast; our guide to how GTA 6’s Heat system works explains Rockstar’s new take on wanted levels.
Where to play it today: The remastered version is on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, and Steam and the Rockstar Store sell it on PC. Rockstar also added it to the GTA+ Games Library in May 2024.
8. Max Payne 3
Why play it before GTA 6: Max Payne 3 is Rockstar’s own studios at their most focused: a linear shooter where Max, no longer a New York cop, takes a bodyguard job in São Paulo and everything goes wrong. Its slow-motion dives and cover shooting feel heavier and more cinematic than GTA V’s gunplay, and it is the Rockstar game that leans hardest on story and gunfights, which makes it a good primer for GTA 6’s robbery jobs. Dan Houser, who wrote it, recently called its reception his own failure; our story on that interview has the details.
Where to play it today: Steam and the Rockstar Store sell it on PC, with all its downloadable content included. It first came out on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012.
7. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Why play it before GTA 6: If what excites you about GTA 6 is a sunny American coast full of tourists, beaches and shady business, SEGA’s RGG Studio got there first. Infinite Wealth sends Ichiban Kasuga and series hero Kazuma Kiryu to Hawaii, where, as SEGA puts it, you “explore all that Hawaii has to offer” between Japan-set chapters, with a huge city full of side stories, minigames and part-time hustles. One thing to know: its fights are turn-based, like an RPG, rather than the real-time brawling of the older Yakuza games. Metacritic lists an 89 for the PC version.
Where to play it today: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC (Steam). It came out in January 2024.
6. Mafia: The Old Country
Why play it before GTA 6: The newest big crime story on this list is a tight one. Hangar 13 sets it in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily, where Enzo Favara works his way into a crime family, and it trades a huge sandbox for a focused, cinematic story with car chases, knife fights and shootouts. That focus is its strength right now: it is a full crime saga you can finish well before November 19. Our guide to how long Mafia: The Old Country takes to beat has the numbers, and our Mafia guides hub collects the rest, from the best weapons to winning the horse race.
Where to play it today: PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam). It came out in August 2025.
5. Grand Theft Auto IV
Why play it before GTA 6: GTA IV is the series at its most grounded, an immigrant’s crime drama that plays as a sharp contrast to GTA V’s satire. Niko Bellic arrives in Liberty City chasing the life his cousin Roman promised him and gets pulled into the city’s debts and crime. Liberty City also matters to GTA 6’s story: Rockstar’s profile of Lucia says her mom has dreamed of the good life “since their days in Liberty City.” The Complete Edition adds both Episodes from Liberty City, and our guides cover its best ending and the best GTA 4 mods.
Where to play it today: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is on Steam and the Rockstar Store for PC.
4. Red Dead Redemption
Why play it before GTA 6: The original Red Dead Redemption is now easier to play than ever, and it is a full Rockstar open world you can finish before launch. Former outlaw John Marston is forced by federal agents to hunt down the last members of his old gang at the end of the cowboy era, and the story still lands as one of Rockstar’s best. Its story picks up after Red Dead Redemption 2’s, our number one pick, so the two make a natural pair. Undead Nightmare, its zombie expansion, comes with it.
Where to play it today: Rockstar brought it to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 in December 2025, with free upgrades for owners of the earlier console versions, and added those versions to the GTA+ Games Library. It is also on PS4, Switch, PC (Steam), iOS and Android.
3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Why play it before GTA 6: GTA 6 goes home to Vice City, and the 2002 original is where that city became famous. Its Steam page sums it up: “Welcome to the 1980s,” with Tommy Vercetti’s rise “to the top of the criminal pile” in “a neon-soaked tropical town full of excess.” Playing it now lets you spot the places, the attitude and the Miami inspiration that GTA 6 returns to, more than two decades later. Our guides will help you through it, from how to progress the story to buying property and finding every hidden package.
Where to play it today: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, The Definitive Edition, which also includes GTA III and San Andreas, is on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam and the Rockstar Store).
2. Grand Theft Auto V
Why play it before GTA 6: It is the game GTA 6 has to follow, and it still has more to do than you will get through in a few weeks. Michael, Franklin and Trevor pull heists across Los Santos and Blaine County, and you switch between them at will, the closest thing in the series to GTA 6’s two leads; our guide to switching between Jason and Lucia covers how Rockstar’s new pair works. If you have already finished the story, GTA Online still runs seasonal events like Ghosts Exposed, and our guide to every Ghosts Exposed location covers that one. Our guides on how heists work and every GTA 5 cheat help too.
Where to play it today: PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, where Steam and the Rockstar Store sell Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced. GTA Online comes with it.
1. Red Dead Redemption 2
Why play it before GTA 6: No game tells you more about what Rockstar is capable of right now. Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018, and GTA 6 will be the studio’s first all-new game since, so this is the latest look at how Rockstar builds a world that reacts to you: an honor system that changes how people treat you, towns with their own routines, a gang camp that carries on around you, and a story that takes its time. It is set in 1899, as Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang flee a robbery gone wrong and try to survive with federal agents and bounty hunters on their heels.
It is a long game, so start now if you want to finish it before November 19; our guide to how many chapters it has and how long it takes will help you plan, and our Red Dead Redemption hub has everything from making money fast to hunting legendary animals. Metacritic lists a 93 for the PC version.
Where to play it today: PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam and the Rockstar Store). The PS4 and Xbox One versions run on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S through backward compatibility, and Red Dead Online comes with it.
How to Fit Them In Before Launch
If you only have a couple of weeks, pick by time. Hotline Miami and A Way Out are the shortest games here and work as weekend picks. Max Payne 3, Mafia: The Old Country, Vice City and Red Dead Redemption are full stories you can still finish before launch day. Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are the big ones: start them now, or treat GTA Online as something to dip into each night.
Before launch day, make sure you are set up: our guides cover what time GTA 6 unlocks in your region, how to preload it and which edition to buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best game to play before GTA 6? Red Dead Redemption 2. It is Rockstar’s most recent all-new game, from 2018, so it is the best preview of how the studio builds its worlds today. If you want something set in GTA 6’s own city, play the original Grand Theft Auto: Vice City instead.
Do you need to play the old GTA games before GTA 6? No. Every Grand Theft Auto tells its own story with new leads, so you can start GTA 6 without having played the others. The older games add context, like Vice City’s 1980s version of the city GTA 6 returns to, but none of them is required.
Which Rockstar games should you play before GTA 6? Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V and GTA Vice City are the three that matter most, followed by Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV, Max Payne 3, L.A. Noire and Bully. Our list of every Rockstar game in order covers the full catalog, and our ranking of the best GTA games helps you choose within the series.
What PS5 games should you play before GTA 6? On PS5, play GTA V, Red Dead Redemption (which has had a PS5 version since December 2025), Mafia: The Old Country, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and the GTA Trilogy. Red Dead Redemption 2, A Way Out and L.A. Noire are PS4 games that run on PS5.
When does GTA 6 come out? Rockstar says Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Our guide to GTA 6’s unlock time has the hour for your region.
Is GTA 6 coming to PC or PS4? Rockstar has announced it only for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Our guides track whether GTA 6 is coming to PC and whether it is coming to PS4, Xbox One, or Switch 2.