Unless you've been hiding under a video game rock, you'll undoubtedly know that a not-so-little game called Grand Theft Auto 6 is getting ready to nuke the competition in 2026.
While Rockstar Games repeatedly promised that the next chapter in the long-running Grand Theft Auto series would be coming in 2025, our worst fears were confirmed when it was pushed to a new release date of May 26, 2026. We'd already been warned that publisher Take-Two Interactive wouldn't release GTA 6 until it was ready, and with so much hype being piled on its upcoming release, the last thing we want is another Cyberpunk 2077 situation.
A lot is riding on GTA 6 at a time when Microsoft is slashing jobs on its gaming arm, multiple studios under Warner Bros. have closed, and Sony's Concord is billed as the most expensive mistake PlayStation has ever made.
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Still, with GTA V soaring to become the most profitable entertainment product of all time since it arrived on the scene, there's a very real chance the next entry could overtake it. Part of what helped GTA V hit these record-breaking highs was the implementation of GTA Online, and with 20 million average monthly gamers still logging in, Rockstar would be foolish not to give us another version or port over the existing GTAO to GTA 6.
There are obvious questions about how GTA 6 will make its money, with the most obvious idea being the price of entry at the door. Amid complaints that Nintendo has started charging $80 for its games, those rumors about GTA 6 costing $100 are starting to sound pretty convincing.
Some rightly suggest that $100 could be the minimum we expect to pay next year, with Take-Two likely knowing most of you will pay whatever they want to get back to Vice City.
Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter estimated to The Telegraph that GTA 6 cost upwards of $1.5 billion to develop, but poised to offset that hefty outgoing, it's expected to rake in billions of dollars of profit for Take-Two. The analyst also waded into the pricing debate and explained: "I expect a $100 price point for the game. The game will be immensely profitable. It will likely generate $10bn lifetime and another $500m annually from GTA Online."
Going hand in hand with this, Take-Two's shares have hit an all-time peak. The publisher is currently valued at around $40 billion, and stocks have climbed 20% in the first part of 2025.
As well as expectations that GTA 6 will make $1 billion in pre-orders alone to eclipse its 2013 bigger brother, others suggest that it will make $1 billion in the first 24 hours and have the biggest gaming launch of all time.
With the few trailers we've seen knocking viewership records out of the park, it's not hard to see all of this come true.
Even though some are sure to grumble about stumping up $100 for GTA 6, the fact that you're willing to pay $80 for a Mario Kart game compared to a AAAA release like this should silence most critics.