Throughout its three-year run, GTA Online has seen a lot of DLC releases. A lot. You'd think that when a game has been getting updates for that long, some kind of pattern would emerge, however, the only constant throughout the history of the game was that all DLC was always free. Rockstar experimented with different models in the past, however, they always ended up mixing things up — something that might now change.
In its first year, GTA Online only got smaller updates at larger intervals. They were at the time considered special instead of being the norm. Instead of demanding the next update, players would rather be thankful for what they got.
All of these smaller, early updates like the Beach Bum, Business and I'm Not A Hipster DLCs added many of the game's mainstay vehicles as well as hoards of character customization items. This trend continued with the odd Creator update for quite some time.
However, 2015's first update, Heists, shook things up majorly with the massive amount of content it brought to the table. It was GTA Online's first true major update, and once the bar was set so high, Rockstar had to ramp up the content of future DLCs to match. This brought us into the era of large-scale updates.
Ill-Gotten Gains, with its two-part release, was a herald of these updates. Best exemplified by the likes of Lowriders or Executives and Other Criminals, these updates brought a blend of vehicles, fluff and missions in larger batches. Lowriders added Benny's Original Motorworks and a number of custom rides alongside new contact missions, while Executives brought things like VIP work and the yachts.
Of course, Rockstar experimented with other approaches as well. They field-tested what may have been the forerunner of the current model with Lowriders. Following the main DLC's release, they kept the lowrider theme going for a good long time, releasing several follow up DLCs including Custom Classics and a new car each week through April.
At the time, the model wasn't well received by players, because it lead to a pretty long content drought with only the odd lowrider changing things up, so Rockstar seemingly abandoned the initiative. They returned to form with Further Adventures in Finance and Felony, releasing a massive content update.
