No: Grand Theft Auto VI is not a sequel to GTA 5. It tells a new story with new leads, Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, in a new state, Leonida, and none of the characters Rockstar has revealed comes from GTA 5. What the two games do share is the series’ fictional America: Rockstar’s own GTA 6 pages name the car makers GTA 5 players know, place Lucia’s childhood in Liberty City, and reach back to 2002’s Vice City for their bonus items.
You don’t need to have played GTA 5 to follow GTA 6. Below is everything official that links the two games, what Rockstar’s team has said on the record, and how the series’ separate universes work.
What Rockstar Says GTA 6 Is About
Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI site sums up the story without a single reference to an earlier game: “Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida.”
The supporting cast is new too. Cal Hampton, Boobie Ike, Dre’Quan Priest, the rap duo Real Dimez, Raul Bautista and Brian Heder are all GTA 6 originals, and our guide to every character Rockstar has revealed covers each one. Michael, Franklin and Trevor, GTA 5’s three leads, appear nowhere on Rockstar’s GTA VI pages, and neither do Los Santos or San Andreas.
The setting moves across the country as well. GTA 5 takes place in San Andreas, Rockstar’s take on Southern California (our guide to what city GTA 5 is based on explains it). GTA 6 takes place in Leonida, Rockstar’s Florida, with Vice City as its Miami, as our guide to what city GTA 6 is based on lays out.
How Rockstar’s Team Talks About GTA 5
On the record, Rockstar treats GTA 5 as the game GTA 6 follows, not one it continues. Rob Nelson, co-studio head of Rockstar North, told IGN that after GTA 5 the team asked itself, “How do we follow up three characters? Is it four characters now?” It settled on two leads, because it worried about “diluting the amount of player time with each” character.
In the same interview, recorded in July and published in October, Nelson set the two games side by side: “As opposed to GTA 5, where it’s three separate characters who are aligned but living very separate lives, you spawn into this game and often go, ‘Where is she? Where is he?'” That is a comparison of how the games are built, and it is as close as Rockstar’s team has come to linking them. Nothing Nelson said ties GTA 6’s plot to GTA 5’s, and Jason and Lucia’s partnership is the core of the new game, which our guide to switching between Jason and Lucia covers.
What GTA 6 Shares With GTA 5
These are the links Rockstar’s own material shows, and none of them is a story connection:
- The same car makers. Rockstar’s edition pages name a ’55 Vapid Stanier, a ’67 Vapid Dominator Buggy, a ’95 Grotti Cheetah, a Dinka Enduro motorcycle and a Shitzu Squalo boat. Vapid, Grotti, Dinka and Shitzu all badge vehicles in GTA 5, which has its own Vapid Dominator, Grotti Cheetah and Shitzu Squalo.
- Liberty City. Lucia’s profile says she wants “the good life her mom has dreamed of since their days in Liberty City,” the series’ New York and the setting of GTA 4.
- GTA Online, as a bonus. Digital pre-orders on the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store come with a free month of GTA+, and the perks Rockstar lists for it, such as “a recurring monthly GTA$500,000 deposit into your GTA Online character’s bank account,” are all for GTA Online, the online side of GTA 5. It is the one place the two games meet as products, and it doesn’t bring anything from GTA 5 into GTA 6. Our guide to the pre-order bonuses explains how to claim it.
- GTA 5 as the yardstick. Rockstar measures the new map against the old one: Leonida is about twice the size of GTA 5’s map, as our guide to how big the GTA 6 map is explains.
The Vice City Nods Point to 2002, Not GTA 5
GTA 6’s main city is Vice City, and Rockstar’s own pages reach back to 2002’s GTA: Vice City rather than to GTA 5:
- The Vintage Vice City Pack, the pre-order bonus, includes a weapon pattern “inspired by Tommy Vercetti’s iconic palm tree button-up,” under the heading “Channel the Original Kingpin.” Tommy was the lead of the 2002 game.
- The Ultimate Edition’s Hawk and Little Morgan revolvers come “with classic Vice City stylings sourced from the Vercetti Estate,” the mansion Tommy takes over in the 2002 game.
- Rockstar’s art for the pack shows Jason and Lucia outside the Ocean View Hotel in Ocean Beach, two names that go back to the 2002 game, where the Ocean View was Tommy’s first hideout.
Tommy himself is not among the characters Rockstar has revealed. Its pages use him as a style reference and a name on an estate, and say nothing more about him.
The Series’ Separate Universes, Explained
Rockstar has kept its 3D-era and HD-era games apart before. Dan Houser, Rockstar’s co-founder and one of GTA 5’s writers, set out the rule in 2012, while GTA 5 was being revealed: “The five PS2 games are one universe, and this is the high definition universe, so they don’t co-exist. You wouldn’t ever see CJ or Tommy Vercetti. They would be like mythical characters in this world who never existed.”
The five PS2 games are GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. The HD games start with GTA 4, and GTA 5 belongs to the same continuity: it brings back GTA 4 faces such as Johnny Klebitz, the lead of The Lost and Damned, and Packie McReary, who can join GTA 5’s heist crews.
Rockstar hasn’t said in so many words which universe GTA 6 belongs to. Its own pages lean toward the HD side: the Vapid, Grotti, Dinka and Shitzu badges match GTA 5’s, while the Tommy Vercetti references are to a shirt and an estate, not to a character Rockstar has shown. Houser left Rockstar in 2020, so his rule describes the series up to GTA 5.
Do You Need to Play GTA 5 First?
No. Nothing Rockstar has shown ties GTA 6’s story to GTA 5’s, and GTA has always worked this way: each numbered game starts fresh with new leads, a point our list of every Rockstar game in order makes too.
Playing GTA 5 first still has its uses. You’ll know the series’ brands and its satire, and you’ll see for yourself the jump from GTA 5 that Rockstar’s own team keeps measuring the new game against. GTA 5 is also easy to find on current consoles and PC. If you want a short list of what to play while you wait, our games to play before GTA 6 picks a dozen, and our ranking of the best GTA games explains where GTA 5 sits. Every guide for the new game is on our GTA 6 hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GTA 6 a sequel to GTA 5? No. It has new leads, Jason and Lucia, a new state, Leonida, and a story that Rockstar describes with no reference to GTA 5.
Are any GTA 5 characters in GTA 6? None of the characters Rockstar has revealed comes from GTA 5, and its GTA VI pages never mention Michael, Franklin or Trevor. Rockstar hasn’t announced any cameos.
Is GTA 6 in the same universe as GTA 5? Rockstar hasn’t said so directly. Its pages share GTA 5’s car makers and put Lucia’s past in Liberty City, which point to the same HD-era world, but there is no official statement either way.
Can you bring your GTA Online character into GTA 6? Rockstar hasn’t announced any way to. PlayStation’s page for the game says “Grand Theft Auto VI is a single-player experience,” and the free month of GTA+ that comes with digital pre-orders is for GTA Online, not GTA 6. Our guide to whether GTA 6 has online multiplayer has more.
Is GTA 6 connected to Red Dead Redemption 2? Not in its story. The links Rockstar’s team draws are about systems: Nelson calls Focus “very similar to ‘Eagle Eye’ in Red Dead Redemption 2” and says the NPC interaction system is “returning and evolved from Red Dead Redemption 2.” Our guide to how Focus works explains it.
Is GTA 6 connected to GTA Vice City? It returns to Vice City and nods to the 2002 game with Tommy Vercetti references, Ocean Beach and the Ocean View Hotel, but it is a new story. By Houser’s 2012 rule, the 2002 game belongs to a different universe from the HD games.
What year is GTA 6 set in? Rockstar hasn’t given one, so there is no official answer to whether its story comes before or after GTA 5’s, which is set in 2013 (our guide to what year GTA 5 is set in explains). GTA 6’s trailers show a modern Leonida of smartphones and social media.