The public got 27 minutes thanks to Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look and it was a lot. The New York Times got a month's head start, and then some. In a feature published August 27, critic Christopher Byrd described a private, hands-off Grand Theft Auto VI session at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, watching the same core footage later released to the rest of the world, with Rockstar development head Rob Nelson telling Byrd that his own playthrough of the game ran about 80 hours.
For comparison, Red Dead Redemption 2's story runs around 50 to 60 hours. If the figure holds, GTA 6 would be the longest game Rockstar has ever shipped, so good luck Kai Cenat.
However, Nelson asks players not to speed through the game. He told Byrd he hopes players will slow down, step away for a coffee or a bit of exercise, and actually live in the world between jobs rather than rushing through the ending credits.
GTA 6 by the Numbers
Figure | What it refers to |
|---|---|
~80 hours | Rob Nelson's own playthrough, main story plus some optional goals, per the New York Times |
~50 to 60 hours | Roughly Red Dead Redemption 2's story length, for comparison |
2x | Vice City's size versus Grand Theft Auto V's Los Santos |
11x | The built-up areas outside the city versus GTA V's suburbs |
3x | The full Leonida map versus Red Dead Redemption 2's playable area |
230 million | Grand Theft Auto V copies sold, the shadow GTA 6 follows |
The headline figures from the feature and Nelson's preview interviews.
With a Vice City roughly twice the size of Grand Theft Auto V's Los Santos, the built-up areas outside the city about 11 times larger, and the full state of Leonida around three times the playable area of Red Dead, Rockstar is putting its unlimited budget to good use by one-upping everyone by having one of the biggest and most dense sandboxes in the gaming industry.
Byrd's piece also pinned down something for the couple whose love story plays a central role in the game. Whether Jason and Lucia move through Leonida as lovers or just as partners in crime is up to the player, confirming the same design choice we dug into in our characters piece.
As for the footage, Byrd walked through the same experience the public later saw, opening with Jason and Lucia involved in a drug deal gone wrong in a grimy tower block and working their way up to a lavish, drug-soaked party for the city's moneyed set. In between came the now-familiar spread of open-world activities, from stock-car racing and skydiving to bayou boating and nightclub floors, alongside the criminal systems that reward players for acting like professionals.
The Times packaged all of this as a genuine monocultural moment, the kind of release that stops the internet the way a major album or film does, and they're right. Geoff Keighley, quoted in the piece, summed it up perfectly: "Most blockbusters have an opening weekend. GTA has an opening decade."
With the Grand Theft Auto franchise having sold over 470 million units, roughly half of which coming from over the past decade, this description feels less hyperbole and more of stating facts.