GTA 6 lands this month, and the whole world is acting like it. So before we all move to Leonida, it is worth remembering where this thing started: a top-down little troublemaker from Scotland in 1997 that almost nobody saw coming.
IT STARTED AS A COP GAME
Grand Theft Auto began life at DMA Design in Dundee, Scotland, the same studio that gave the world Lemmings. Development started in 1995 under the working title Race 'n' Chase, and the original plan had you playing a police officer chasing criminals. Then the team let players be the criminal, and the game found its soul on the spot.
DMA Design's David Jones created the series, with Mike Dailly alongside him, and the first game shipped on November 28, 1997, for PC, then PlayStation. It was a top-down sandbox across three cities that should ring a bell: Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City. The whole map of the future was sitting right there in game one.
THE HOUSER ERA
Brothers Sam and Dan Houser got their hands on the project at BMG Interactive and saw what it could become. When Take-Two bought BMG in 1998, the Housers founded Rockstar Games in New York that December, and DMA Design eventually became Rockstar North in 2002.
What followed is the most ridiculous run in the history of the medium. GTA 2 in 1999. GTA III in 2001, which dragged the series into 3D and changed open world games forever. Vice City in 2002. San Andreas in 2004, which I will defend as the peak until somebody pries the controller out of my hands. GTA IV in 2008. GTA V in 2013.
“The wait is the story. The wait is almost over.”
Moe Train
THE NUMBERS ARE STUPID
GTA V is the second best-selling video game of all time, behind only Minecraft. Take-Two's own reports put it past 230 million copies as of August 2026, still adding millions every year, thirteen years after it launched. The series as a whole has moved more than 460 million copies. Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, has called GTA V the most important entertainment IP in history, and the sales sheet makes that real hard to argue with.
THIRTEEN YEARS LATER
Which brings us back to right now. GTA 6 arrives November 19, 2026, twenty-nine years after a top-down experiment from Dundee, thirteen years after GTA V, and five years of my life spent watching trailers like they owe me money. Jason and Lucia take us back to Vice City and across the state of Leonida, in a game you can already have sitting on your console tonight.
The wait is the story. The wait is almost over.
THE SCORES, GAME BY GAME
The industry's scoreboard tells the same story this page just told, checked on Metacritic. Grand Theft Auto III: 97. Vice City: 95. San Andreas: 95. Grand Theft Auto IV: 98, the series record. Grand Theft Auto V: 97 on Metacritic and a 92 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic. The first two games predate the modern scoreboards and carry no Metascore. GTA 6 is unrated until launch. Five straight mainline games at 95 or better is a run no other series can show you.
GRAND THEFT AUTO HISTORY: QUESTIONS EVERYBODY IS ASKING
When did the first Grand Theft Auto come out? November 28, 1997, developed by DMA Design in Scotland and created by David Jones and Mike Dailly.
Who created Grand Theft Auto? David Jones and Mike Dailly at DMA Design, with Sam and Dan Houser shaping the series from the start and founding Rockstar Games in 1998.
What is the best-selling Grand Theft Auto game? GTA V, the second best-selling game of all time behind Minecraft, with more than 230 million copies sold per Take-Two's reporting.
How long was the wait for GTA 6? Thirteen years. GTA V launched in 2013 and GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026.
