GTA 6 will be significantly larger than GTA 5
Vice City in GTA 6 will be approximately twice the size of Los Santos from GTA 5, however the main difference of the new game will not only be in the size of the central city.
Beyond Vice City, developers have created far more populated and developed areas, so Leonida should feel more like a full-fledged state rather than a single megacity with vacant peripheries.
Vice City is twice as large as Los Santos
Development lead for GTA VI and co-lead of Rockstar North, Rob Nelson , told about the world’s size during a game demonstration at the studio. According to him, Vice City alone is approximately twice the size of Los Santos from GTA V.
The difference is even more noticeable outside the main city. The scale of small towns and other developed areas around Vice City is approximately 11 times larger than similar areas in GTA V.
Thus, a significant portion of the GTA 6 map will consist not just of forests, swamps, roads, and other spaces between major locations. Players will encounter numerous small settlements that can be explored individually.
A participant of the closed presentation TGG also relayed additional benchmarks voiced by the developers: the entire map GTA VI is approximately twice as large as the world GTA V and approximately three times larger than the playable area in Red Dead Redemption 2.
At the same time, Rockstar has not yet specified the area of Leonida in square kilometers. Therefore, specific map area values appearing online remain unofficial estimates.
Leonid will have several major regions
Rockstar has already presented six main territories GTA 6: Vice City, the Leonida Keys archipelago, the port city of Port Gellhorn, the industrial area of Ambrosia, the swampy region of Grassrivers, and Mount Kalaga National Park.
It is precisely the diversity of regions that should distinguish the new map from GTA V. Instead of Los Santos and the relatively sparsely populated Blaine County, developers are creating several urban and natural zones with noticeably distinct environments.
Nelson explained that Rockstar first studied real-life Miami and Florida, then selected locations and regional features they wanted to bring into the game. The geography of Leonida roughly mirrors the layout of real prototypes, but developers intentionally altered distances and scales. GTA VI does not attempt to reproduce Florida on a 1:1 scale.
The game will start on the islands
At the beginning of GTA, player 6 will be in Leonida Keys. This is where Jason’s house is located, previously shown by Rockstar.
After the initial part, the available world will expand significantly. According to Nelson, the player will then be able to travel to almost any point on the map at any time.
The plot is specifically structured to gradually guide Jason and Lusia through different parts of Leonida. Developers first identified key regions of the map, then created characters and plot events that would naturally lead the player from islands and small towns to swamps, business districts, and the nightlife of Vice City.
The large map has been brought to life
The size of the territory was not the only challenge for Rockstar. Developers aimed to make the investigation an integral part of the game, so many events will not be directly marked with quests or map icons.
During the demonstration, Nelson also confirmed a large number of buildings available for visits. The world changes even depending on the time of day: for example, journalists drove down the same street twice during a closed screening and encountered significantly denser traffic the second time due to rush hour.
Rockstar aims to build on the approach of Red Dead Redemption 2, where the focus was less on map size and more on the number of events happening around the player. According to Nelson, the GTA VI should offer even more ways to interact with the surrounding world.
Grand Theft Auto VI will be released on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The PC version has not yet been officially announced, but it is clear that in one to two years GTA 6 will also be released there.
