01 / 18Liberty · Vice · San Andreas
The open city
Grand Theft Auto
A top-down city becomes a toy box: steal a car, ignore the route and make your own trouble.
- Play as
- Selectable player character
- Story setting
- 1997
Platforms PC · PlayStation
GTH / 1997—2026Independent digital archive
The evolution of an open-world icon
Grand Theft History
Eighteen chapters. Four eras. One road from a pixel city in 1997 to the sun-bleached state of Leonida.
18Chapters
29Years
04Eras
ERA 01 / 04
Pixels · payphones · overhead chaos
The
2D world
Before the cinematic camera, the city was a moving map. Four releases established the freedom, satire and geography that everything else would build on.
$00024750★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
POWERINSERT DISC
London calling
London 1969
The formula crosses the Atlantic, swaps the mood and proves the city itself can be the star.
London 1961
A free mission pack turns one detour through London into a miniature era of its own.
04 / 18Anywhere City
Respect the gangs
GTA 2
A darker near-future city adds rival factions, reputation and a sharper arcade rhythm.
- Play as
- Claude Speed
- Story setting
- Unspecified near future
Platforms PC · PlayStation · Dreamcast
THE DEFINING JUMP · 2001 · The map comes alive
The map wakes
- 01Map
- 02Rise
- 03Descend
- 04Tunnel
- 05Liberty
ERA 02 / 04
The camera hits the street
The
3D era
Six worlds in six years. Liberty City supplied the depth, Vice City the style, and San Andreas the scale.
05 / 18Liberty City
The third dimension
GTA III
The camera drops behind the car and the modern open world finds its visual language.
- Play as
- Claude
- Story setting
- 2001
Platforms PlayStation 2 · Xbox · PC
06 / 18Vice City
A city with a soundtrack
Vice City
Neon, ocean haze and an unmistakable decade turn location into personality.
- Play as
- Tommy Vercetti
- Story setting
- 1986
Platforms PlayStation 2 · Xbox · PC
Vice City memory
Turn the dial. Own the night.
Scroll tunes sunset into neon♥ 100
☆☆☆☆☆☆VICE CITY · 1986
Ocean Beach
One last ride before San Andreas
07 / 18Los Santos · San Fierro · Las Venturas
A whole state
San Andreas
Three cities, countryside and character progression make the world feel impossibly broad.
- Play as
- Carl “CJ” Johnson
- Story setting
- 1992
Platforms PlayStation 2 · Xbox · PC
San Andreas memory
One city becomes a state.
Keep driving beyond Los SantosThe portable cities
GTA Advance
A pocket-sized return to the overhead viewpoint keeps the original perspective alive.
Liberty City Stories
A full 3D Liberty City arrives in your hands without shrinking its attitude.
Vice City Stories
The portable chapter gives businesses and territory a bigger role in the neon city.
ERA 03 / 04
Physics · performance · persistence
High
definition
The cities become denser, their stories overlap, and one Los Santos grows into a living service spanning generations.
11 / 18Liberty City
The HD universe
GTA IV
Weight, physics and a denser city replace caricature with a colder, more grounded world.
- Play as
- Niko Bellic
- Story setting
- 2008
Platforms PlayStation 3 · Xbox 360 · PC
One city, three more stories
The Lost and Damned
The same streets tell a rougher parallel story from the seat of a motorcycle.
Chinatown Wars
A graphic-novel look and tactile systems reinvent the overhead view for handheld screens.
The Ballad of Gay Tony
Nightlife, color and airborne excess reveal a brighter side of the same concrete city.
15 / 18Los Santos · Blaine County
Three lives, one world
GTA V
Character switching turns a huge state into three overlapping stories and viewpoints.
- Play as
- Michael De Santa · Franklin Clinton · Trevor Philips
- Story setting
- 2013 · prologue: 2004
Platforms PlayStation · Xbox · PC
16 / 18Southern San Andreas
The living city
GTA Online
Heists, businesses and constant expansion transform one release into a decade-long platform.
- Play as
- Your custom character
- Story setting
- 2013 onward · evolves with updates
Platforms PlayStation · Xbox · PC
The past returns
The Trilogy — Definitive
The three landmark 3D-era cities return together for a new generation of hardware.
INTERACTION / SATELLITE SURVEY
The world switch
How big
was the leap?
Leave the street. Climb through the clouds. Switch worlds and feel how the map expanded from one dense city into an entire state.
STATE OF SAN ANDREASILLUSTRATED SURVEY
2013 / WORLD 5GTA V
Los Santos & Blaine County
FOOTPRINT48–75.8KM² EST.
CHARACTERCity, mountains, desert and oceanLand and water estimate
WORLD
SWITCH
SWITCH
Illustrative maps and routes · community area estimates use differing land/water boundaries and are not directly comparable.
INTELLIGENCE / PUBLIC RECORD
The commercial story
The biggest
score.
Not profit. Not internet guesses. These are the moments Take-Two put on the record—launch sales, reported copies and the occasional number it chose not to reveal.
Drag to turnor use arrow keys
First three days$1B+estimated worldwide retail sales
$1B+estimated worldwide retail sales
GTA V
Take-Two estimated retail sales above one billion dollars in three days, describing it as the fastest entertainment property to reach that milestone.
- Recorded
- First three days
- Measure
- estimated worldwide retail sales
ARCHIVE NOTE / NO STANDALONE LIFETIME REVENUE DISCLOSED
Grand Theft AutoLondon 1969 / 1961GTA 2GTA AdvanceLiberty City StoriesVice City StoriesChinatown WarsEpisodes from Liberty CityThe Definitive Edition
A blank record is not zero. It means no dependable standalone total was published, so this archive leaves the drawer closed instead of manufacturing a number.
AUDIENCE / REPORTED UNITS
Every copy leaves a light on
Copies on
the street.
Follow the disclosed milestones. The road grows, the city wakes up and a console hit becomes a global skyline.
MILESTONE NIGHT DRIVE2026 / Grand Theft AutoRepresentation, not geographic scale
RECORD 06 / 06 · 2026
Grand Theft Auto
Every city, side story and generation becomes one enormous illuminated route toward Leonida.
470M+ · franchise sold-inFigures are snapshots from the date shown, not like-for-like lifetime totals. “Sold-in” means units delivered into retail channels.
ROCKSTAR ARCHIVE / OFFICIAL YOUTUBE
Remember opening the case?
The
trailers
Choose a case from the archive shelf. It opens into a private screening room and loads video only after selection.
R★ / PHYSICAL MEDIA ARCHIVEChoose a caseSix reveals · three console generations · one shelf
The longest road / 2013—2026
Thirteen years.
One city.
One Los Santos. Three console generations.
Scroll through the years that kept it alive.
YEAR ON THE ROAD2013
CHAPTER 01 / 10
↓ Drive forwardThe city opens
Los Santos becomes a shared world.
↑ Rewind the years
Read the complete road log
- The city opens
Los Santos becomes a shared world.
- Heists
Four-player scores reshape the endgame.
- CEO era
Organizations, warehouses and businesses arrive.
- Gunrunning
Bunkers and a new underground economy.
- The Diamond
A casino becomes the city's brightest landmark.
- Cayo Perico
The first major island expands the map.
- New generation
The city crosses into its third console era.
- Ten years
A decade of players, crews and reinvention.
- PC evolves
The enhanced edition brings the latest systems forward.
- The road ahead
Los Santos finally points toward Leonida.
ERA 04 / 04 · PLANNED NOVEMBER 19, 2026
Same coast. A new horizon.
Leonida
Jason and Lucia lead the return to Vice City, with a new story stretching across the state of Leonida.
- Play as
- Jason & Lucia
- Story setting
- Modern day · exact year unconfirmed
Announced platforms PlayStation 5 · Xbox Series X|S
Official details & latest videos ↗ · Checked September 13, 2026
18 / 18GTA VIVice City · Leonida
The complete route · 1997—2026