Of all the games in development right now, there's perhaps none more highly anticipated than Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 6.
Rockstar officially revealed GTA 6 in December of last year, sharing a trailer and a broad overview of the new game. It was confirmed that the game will be set in the state of Leonid, a fictional location that's inspired by the real state of Florida. It's also home to Vice City, one of the three original cities introduced in Grand Theft Auto, which is based on the city of Miami, Florida.
Specific details about the game were not revealed, but the trailer showed off plenty of locations that players will presumably visit during their adventure.
Given what we know about Rockstar Games and their tendency to push the envelope of game development, many expect Grand Theft Auto 6 to feature the largest open-world environment yet in the series. And if estimates from a well-known community project are accurate, it very well may be the biggest GTA game to date.
The community project — "GTA VI - Vice City & Leonida State Mapping Project" — has been attempting to piece together the game's map based mostly on the massive GTA 6 leak from a couple of years ago.
So far, the current map, based on the project, is estimated to be around 125 square kilometers. If this is true — and there's no real way of knowing its accuracy without Rockstar confirming — then it would mean that the map in GTA 6 is going to be 2.55x larger than the one in GTA 5.
That is massive. But if you're having a hard time visualizing the difference, they've put together a side-by-side comparison.
The trailer gave us a pretty good look at the many different places you'll visit in Grand Theft Auto 6. From cities to beaches, it looks like a pretty authentic take on Florida.But you also have to remember, Florida is home to large wetlands. According to the Florida Department of Environment Protection, Florida's wetlands include "swamps, marshes, bayheads, bogs, cypress domes and strands, sloughs, wet prairies, riverine swamps and marshes, hydric seepage slopes, tidal marshes, mangrove swamps and other similar areas."
If GTA 6's map is indeed this large, it stands to reason that large swaths of the map will consist of these rural wetlands. I expect to see a few densely packed cities, but most of the map will probably consist of large open areas and natural environments.
What also remains to be seen is how much of the ocean will be used to make up the map. The trailer did seem to showcase a few water-based activities and we all know how the ocean and beach are pivotal aspects of Florida, so I expect players will be able to travel a bit by boat in the ocean as well.
Of course, this is all speculation based on assets that were leaked years ago. They very well could be out of date by now. Either way, it's not unreasonable to expect GTA 6 to be the largest Grand Theft Auto game to date.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to launch in 2025, although there have been rumors that it could be delayed to 2026.