You'd think that with all the talk surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 ever since it was officially announced that it'd be one of the most searched games on Google year-in and year-out but you'd be wrong.
Despite gamers constantly voting for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto title at the Golden Joysticks and The Game Awards, it actually isn't something that people consistently search for.
In fact, according to Google's "Year in Search 2025" rankings, GTA 6 is just the ninth-most searched game of 2025, with Arc Raiders topping the charts followed by Battlefield 6, Strands, Split Fiction, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 rounding the Top 5.
So, what gives? Is GTA 6 not as popular as many analysts and critics are making it out to be?
While search volume is definitely one way to measure how popular something is, it isn't the only metric. Otherwise, GTA wouldn't be seen as a popular title at all, even though the number suggest otherwise. Despite constantly being one of the best-selling games year in and year out ever since launching, Grand Theft Auto V was only the top trending term on Google once: the year that it came out when it was the No. 1 trending video game searched in the United States while ranking highly on global lists. Since then, no other GTA game has come close. In fact, this is the first time GTA 6 was searched this much by everyone.
You'd think that the Epic Games Store GTA V giveaway in 2020, release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition in 2021, the GTA 6 leaks in 2022, and the debut of the first GTA 6 trailer in 2023 would've led to a massive enough spike in GTA search volume, but you'd be wrong.
