Is Grand Theft Auto VI banned in South Korea? No, but it came close. The country's ratings board nearly refused to give the next Grand Theft Auto a classification, a decision that would have blocked official sale outright.
The near-miss comes from the ratings board's own meeting minutes. GTA VI went before the Game Content Rating Board, the private body that handles adult ratings for console and PC games in South Korea, on September 10. The panel deadlocked 3 to 3, split between an Adults Only rating and an outright refusal, then postponed its decision. The sticking point? It was definitely not what you'd expect from a GTA title.
According to the minutes obtained by Inven, the board viewed the violence, crime and drugs as broadly comparable to Grand Theft Auto V, which earned an Adults Only rating back in 2013. What divided the panel was frequent male nudity appearing outside any sexual context, as background and mission detail rather than interactive content.
The board gave GTA VI two more chances. A second review on October 2 was postponed again for fuller examination, with researchers noting the map was so large they needed publisher-supplied maps to even locate the scenes in question. Members also questioned whether a refusal would hold up legally, since the guidelines on sensuality carried little binding force and no clear criteria existed for rejecting a game over crime or drugs. The risk of South Korea becoming one of the few countries to turn away a game most of the world had already cleared hung over the room.
A canceled meeting and a third review later, the board settled it. On October 16, all nine members voted 8 to 1 for an Adults Only classification, clearing GTA VI for sale with descriptors for sensuality, violence, crime, drugs and language.
GTA 6's path through South Korea's ratings board
Date | Stage | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
September 1 | Rating application filed | Submitted to the GCRB |
September 10 | First review | Deadlocked 3 to 3, postponed for changes |
September 28 | Playable build delivered | Delayed by security concerns |
October 2 | Second review | Postponed for fuller examination |
October 8 | Scheduled meeting | Canceled over lack of quorum |
October 16 | Third review | Passed 8 to 1 as Adults Only |
A six-week process that twice came close to refusal.
GTA VI was the first major test of a newly privatized board for South Korea, which only took over adult ratings from the government in late 2025. A refusal would have made the country one of the few places holding out after the game had already secured adult ratings across every major territory. The nudity debate fits a longer run of content questions trailing the game, from the expected cuts to its Japanese version to the sex scenes and descriptors flagged in its ratings and the nude leaks that never proved full in-game nudity. Similar worries have flared over a possible ban in the Gulf states and even the UK, none of which have come to pass.
The dispute did not change the content of the Korean version, which ships the same content as everywhere else. The lasting detail is what nearly stopped it.
A series built on decades of chaos and crime stalled at a deadlocked vote, nearly refused over nudity its own reviewers called mostly incidental.
On November 19, we'll find out exactly what kind of nudity GTA 6 will have that led to it almost getting banned for sale outright from South Korea.