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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Lauren Morton

UNBELIEVABLE: When the heck is gta 6 going to release on pc | History Defined

Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay reveal.

We've been talking about it for years and yet we're still waiting to hear when GTA 6 will launch on PC. History says it will probably be around a year after the console launch and that Rockstar probably won't even confirm a PC release date until next year either. How deep into the Leonida weeds can I get trying to divine an answer? At least deep enough to get WASTED by rogue wildlife, probably.

When might the GTA 6 PC release date be?

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

The PC release date for GTA 6 likely won't be before November 2027. That's my best guess based on the timeline of Rockstar's past PC ports, because so far it hasn't even given an estimate for a PC launch window.

For its last three major releases (including RDR2), the delay from console launch to PC has ranged from 7 months (GTA 4) to 19 months (GTA 5), though Rockstar's original plan before delays was about 14 months between console and PC for GTA 5.

Adding insult to injury, it would be in keeping with its playbook for Rockstar to not announce a PC release date until well after the console version has been out. It confirmed a PC version of GTA 4 the summer of 2008, several months after the console launch. It did nearly the same with GTA 5, launching on consoles in September 2013, announcing a GTA 5 PC release date in summer 2014, and then delaying the PC version several times into 2015—yes, it launched on two console generations before coming to PC. With RDR2 it just straight up waited a year after the console launch to confirm what we all knew: RDR2 would come to PC, giving us just a month's notice.

So not only will GTA 6 probably not launch on PC until the back half of 2027, Rockstar may not even deign to give us a date until sometime next year either.

Rockstar's past PC port timelines

Grand Theft Auto 4 (7 months)

April 29, 2008

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 launch

August 2008

PC version announced

December 2, 2008

PC launch

Grand Theft Auto 5 (19 months)

September 17, 2013

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 launch

June 2014

PC version announced (with Xbox One, PS4 version)

November 18, 2014

Xbox One, PlayStation 4 Enhanced Edition launch

April 14, 2015

PC Enhanced Edition launch

GTA 5 Enhanced* (3 years)

March 15, 2022

Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 launch

March 4, 2025

PC launch

*Not to be confused with the version formerly known as GTA 5 Enhanced Edition which was the next gen console launch on November 18, 2014. My brain hurts.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (12 months)

October 26, 2018

Xbox One, PlayStation 4 launch

October 4, 2019

PC version announced

November 5, 2019

PC launch

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (simultaneous)

November 11, 2021

Console and PC launch

December 14, 2023

Mobile

Why is Rockstar still not prioritizing PC launches?

(Image credit: Rockstar)

In May 2026, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said that Rockstar prioritizes console releases because "you're judged by serving the core." At the same time, he guestimated that PC could account for 45-50% of the sales of a "major launch" for Take-Two. So we know, as presumably does Zelnick, that any claim that PC isn't the "core" audience for GTA 6 is total baloney.

The answer here is probably as simple as: They hope you'll buy it twice. Or maybe even three times, if they manage to do a console release, a next-gen console release, and then a PC release, as they did with GTA 5.

Next-gen consoles and GTA Online complicate predictions

(Image credit: Rockstar)

We are, I'm afraid, in a similar situation to the one GTA 5 launched into. The future of the consoles is murky at the moment due to the AI-driven memory price quagmire, but Microsoft said this year that it's "deep in development" of the next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, and we assume the same about Sony and the next PlayStation.

It's possible, then, that we won't see GTA 6 on PC until sometime after it launches on Project Helix and PlayStation 6. That could put its PC release sometime in 2028 or even later.

Things have changed since the last console generation switchover, though. The consoles are only getting more PC-like, so there won't be any technical justification for withholding a PC version a second time—not that Rockstar needs one, but perhaps the uncertainty around hardware prices will stall the next-gen consoles, or at least give Rockstar a reason not to wait around for them.

Rockstar also hasn't told us what's happening with GTA Online yet. At launch, GTA 6 is purely a singleplayer game, but there must be big plans for the series' online offering—they didn't acquire the creators of GTA 5 roleplaying mod FiveM for nothing.

It may behoove Rockstar to time its GTA 6 PC launch with whatever big GTA Online refresh it has planned, and with the rest of the industry also champing at the bit to launch the next great live-service, UGC-focused game/platform, I don't imagine Rockstar wants to dilly-dally.

Coming up next on GTA 6's road to launch is the big gameplay reveal—finally—which is happening August 27, first on Netflix and then on YouTube. I doubt we'll learn more about Rockstar's PC intentions there, but we still might come away with some clues.

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