Grand Theft Auto VI's brunette tops the list, Grand Theft Auto V's Selfie Girl is second, and Misty from Grand Theft Auto III gets credit for starting it all back in 2001.
The Grand Theft Auto VI cover art continued one of the franchise's oldest traditions: the cover girl.
With fans hunting for the real-life woman behind the new brunette, it is the perfect moment to look back at every major cover girl the series has given us and rank them.
Since Grand Theft Auto III, every mainline Grand Theft Auto box has featured a woman in one of its collage panels. These women are almost always promotional-only, meaning they rarely appear as major characters in the actual game. They're more marketing icons than story figures, but that hasn't stopped fans from obsessing over every one of them for two decades.
GTA Cover Girl Ranking
| Rank | Cover Girl | Game | Real-Life Counterpart |
|---|---|---|---|
6 | Rochell'le / Vinewood Girl | GTA: San Andreas (2004) | Unconfirmed |
5 | The Twins | GTA: Vice City (2002) | Unconfirmed |
4 | Misty | GTA III (2001) | Unconfirmed |
3 | Lola Del Rio | GTA IV (2008) | Unconfirmed |
2 | The Selfie Girl | GTA V (2013) | Shelby Welinder |
1 | The "Vice Baby" Brunette | GTA VI (2026) | Gabriela Chiquin (fan speculation, unconfirmed) |
Ranking is based on visual impact, cultural staying power, fit with the game's vibe, and fan reception.
Rochell'le, the Vinewood-style girl from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, lands herself the last spot not because she is bad, but because the cover is so stuffed with iconic imagery (the green Grove Street palette, the collage of CJ's world) that no single woman in it became a standalone icon. She blends into a busy, brilliant cover. Meanwhile, the Twins from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are pure 80s set dressing for the neon-soaked Vice City, never really developing any identity beyond being anonymous cover girls.
As for Misty from GTA III, she's the OG that started it all. She gets credit for setting the template. The black-and-white panel style was groundbreaking in 2001, even though the panel itself is simple by modern standards.
In comparison, the Grand Theft Auto IV cover leaned grittier and more grounded, matching Niko Bellic's grim Liberty City. Lola Del Rio fit that tone to a T, a more realistic, less cartoonish presence than the 80s and 90s covers. However, the iconic Selfie Girl from Grand Theft Auto V was the defining image of Los Santos from launch in 2013 onward. She captured the smartphone-era, social-media satire at the heart of the second-best-selling video game of all time.
Best of all, her real-life tie is the most documented of any cover girl, and the imagery got quite controversial after Lindsay Lohan claimed Rockstar used her likeness.
Finally, we're giving the "Vice Baby" brunette from the upcoming release the crown. Recency bias? We're definitely not ruling that out. She also takes the top spot for driving a real-time fan investigation. Within days of the cover reveal, she's become the most-discussed cover girl in series history.
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Again, most of these women are marketing. Misty had a small GTA III role, but the rest are largely promotional faces who never became playable or central. The new GTA VI brunette may turn out to be a real character, a minor NPC, or pure box art. We do not know yet, and Rockstar will not say.
Ranking them is fun, and, if anything else, Rockstar's continued use of these figures all but confirms that it's staying true to the series' controversial themes and its "new" writers aren't pulling their punches at all.
With pre-orders opening June 25 and a likely gameplay reveal close behind, the GTA VI cover girl is going to stay in the conversation for months. Whether she ends up being Gabriela Chiquin, a composite, or someone Rockstar never names, she already continues a tradition that goes back to 2001 and has made it bigger than ever.