60 Fun Facts About Grand Theft Auto

In what year was Grand Theft Auto V first released, on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360?

It launched on 17 September 2013 and later jumped to PS4/Xbox One (2014), Windows (2015) and PS5/Xbox Series (2022).

GTA V's lead studio, Rockstar North, is headquartered in which UK city?

The studio began life in Dundee under a different name before moving to Scotland's capital; the Dundee office was closed a few months after the new branch opened.

Which GTA V protagonist is introduced as a street gangster working for a corrupt car salesman?

He meets Michael while trying to fraudulently repossess Michael's son's car, and the two end up as partners in crime.

GTA V's city of Los Santos is a fictional version of which real city?

The team studied census data, documentaries and Google Maps projections to reproduce the real city's road networks and demographic spread.

Which actor provides the voice and motion capture for Trevor Philips?

He was later cast as Simon in The Walking Dead, and Rockstar based Trevor's look on his own appearance.

GTA V opens in 2004 with a botched robbery in the town of Ludendorff, in which fictional snowy state?

The prologue leaves Michael presumed dead; the story then jumps nine years ahead to Los Santos.

In 2013, how fast did GTA V gross US$1 billion, a record for any entertainment product?

It had already made about $800 million on its first day, roughly the same as the entire film industry's biggest opening weekends.

How many Guinness World Records did GTA V break in one go on 8 October 2013?

They included best-selling video game in 24 hours and most viewed trailer for an action-adventure game.

Roughly how many copies of GTA V had shipped worldwide by mid-2026?

That makes it the second-best-selling video game ever, with close to $10 billion in lifetime revenue.

Each GTA V protagonist has a special ability. Franklin's slows down time while he is doing what?

Michael gets bullet time in gunfights, while Trevor deals double damage and takes half as much.

Michael's old friend Lester Crest, who plans the heists, is what kind of specialist?

The wheelchair-using mastermind first helps the trio rob a jewellery store to pay off Michael's debt, and later runs GTA Online's heists too.

Trevor Philips Enterprises, Trevor's meth-and-guns operation, is based in which small Blaine County town?

Its trailer-park setting was inspired by a research trip Rockstar took to Bombay Beach on California's Salton Sea.

Which target does the trio hit for GTA V's final heist, 'The Big Score'?

The prize is a gold bullion reserve, and pulling it off sets up the game's three possible endings.

Which private military company does Trevor go to war with in Blaine County?

It's a thinly veiled jab at real contractors like Blackwater, and the company also guards targets in several GTA Online heists.

How long after GTA V's release did Grand Theft Auto Online go live?

The launch on 1 October 2013 was so rough that Rockstar handed every early player GTA$500,000 as an apology.

Up to how many players can share a single GTA Online session?

That cap is lower than GTA IV's 32-player multiplayer, but the world is far bigger and the sessions run persistent businesses.

GTA Online's long-delayed Heists update finally arrived in which year?

It landed on 10 March 2015, about 17 months after the mode launched, and promptly buckled under the player load.

What do GTA Online's real-money 'Shark Cash Cards' actually give the buyer?

The biggest, the Megalodon, drops GTA$10,000,000 straight into your character's bank account.

The Cayo Perico Heist requires players to buy what kind of vehicle to reach El Rubio's island?

The Kosatka comes with a one-man crew, ex-Russian Navy sailor Pavel, and the heist was the first that could be finished solo.

In GTA Online's The Contract, whose stolen phone of unreleased music does Franklin's agency recover?

The update also refreshed Radio Los Santos and West Coast Classics with brand-new tracks he made for the game.

Which German electronic group co-composed GTA V's original score, the series' first?

Founder Edgar Froese initially turned down the idea of scoring a video game before signing on alongside Woody Jackson, The Alchemist and Oh No.

Which actress joined Karen Gravano in suing Rockstar over GTA V likenesses in 2014?

Her complaint pointed at the paparazzi-dodging starlet Lacey Jonas; the case was eventually thrown out.

Before living under the alias De Santa, Michael's real surname was what?

He faked his death in the Ludendorff job with help from FIB agent Dave Norton, and his old partner Brad was buried in the grave marked with his name.

Analysts put GTA V's development and marketing budget at roughly how much, then a record for any game?

More than 1,000 people across Rockstar's studios worked on it, and it earned the budget back roughly three times over on launch day.

In GTA Online's Doomsday Heist, the player storms a secret missile base hidden inside which mountain?

The mountain had already spawned years of fan theories thanks to a cryptic mural at its summit in the single-player game.

Which Scottish studio developed the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997?

The same studio had made Lemmings six years earlier and would later be renamed Rockstar North.

Under what working title did the first Grand Theft Auto begin development, with the player as a cop?

The cop concept was judged dull, so the team flipped it and let players be the criminal instead.

From what perspective was the original 1997 Grand Theft Auto played?

The series stayed 2D until GTA III made the leap to a full 3D city.

Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) is set in a retrofuturistic metropolis with what name?

Its intro was a live-action short film shot in New York, the only one in the series, starring EastEnders actor Scott Maslen.

GTA III, the first fully 3D game in the series, was released for PlayStation 2 in which year?

It was delayed three weeks after the 11 September attacks so the team could change references that suddenly felt inappropriate.

GTA III's protagonist never speaks a word and isn't even named until San Andreas. What is his name?

The developers wanted a strong, silent killer to contrast with the neurotic, verbose mobsters around him.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is set in which year?

The neon-and-pastel setting draws heavily on Scarface and Miami Vice, and Rockstar sent the team on field trips to Miami to get it right.

Which Goodfellas star voiced Vice City's Tommy Vercetti, the series' first speaking protagonist?

He called it a challenge because he was creating a character from nothing, and the cast also included Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper.

Who voiced Carl 'CJ' Johnson in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in his first ever acting role?

Rockstar asked him to audition after overhearing him talk with co-writer DJ Pooh; his obscurity was meant to make CJ feel more human.

Samuel L. Jackson voices which corrupt San Andreas character?

His CRASH unit blackmails CJ from the opening scene, and Tenpenny won Villain of the year at the Golden Joysticks.

After the hidden "Hot Coffee" minigame was found in San Andreas, the ESRB changed the rating to what?

Walmart, Target and Best Buy pulled it from shelves until Rockstar shipped a cleaned-up version, and Australia banned it outright for a while.

In GTA IV, Niko Bellic arrives in Liberty City aboard a cargo ship with what name?

The same ship returns at the end of the game, where Niko must choose between a deal and revenge.

GTA IV's Liberty City neighbours the state of Alderney, which is modelled on which real place?

The four boroughs of Liberty City itself stand in for Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009) was originally released for which handheld?

It used the touch screen for hotwiring cars and a drug-dealing sideline that drew complaints, yet it became the DS's highest-rated game on GameRankings.

Rockstar Games was set up in New York in December 1998 as a publishing label of which parent company?

The parent had just bought the assets of BMG Interactive, bringing the GTA rights and the Houser brothers along with them.

Which Rockstar co-founder and head writer left in 2020 and later set up Absurd Ventures?

He wrote or co-wrote a dozen GTA titles plus both Red Dead Redemptions; GTA VI is the first main entry since 1997 without him.

What was the 2015 BBC docudrama about the making of GTA, starring Daniel Radcliffe, called?

Rockstar sued the BBC for trademark infringement over it, saying they had nothing to do with the film. Bill Paxton co-starred as the crusading anti-games lawyer.

Which former Rockstar North president, lead producer of GTA III to V, sued Rockstar for unpaid royalties in 2016?

He claimed $150m; the case ended in a confidential settlement in 2019, and his own studio Build a Rocket Boy shipped MindsEye in 2025.

Grand Theft Auto VI is set in which fictional US state, a stand-in for Florida?

It includes a modern-day Vice City plus the Everglades-inspired Grassrivers and the Leonida Keys, and the satire targets influencer culture and Florida Man memes.

GTA VI's Lucia Caminos is described as the series' first non-optional what?

The 1997 original let you pick a woman from its roster, but every 3D-era lead until now has been a man.

When did Rockstar release the first official GTA VI trailer, a day early after it leaked online?

It hit 93 million views in 24 hours, then the third-most-viewed YouTube video ever in that window, and became the most-liked game trailer.

Whose song "Love Is a Long Road" soundtracked the first GTA VI trailer and jumped nearly 37,000% on Spotify?

The second trailer went even bigger, pulling the Pointer Sisters' 'Hot Together' up by about 182,000%.

After its second delay, in November 2025, what release date did Rockstar set for GTA VI?

The first slip was to May 2026, then a week after Rockstar fired 34 staff in October 2025 it pushed the date back again for 'additional polish'.

The teenager behind the September 2022 GTA VI footage leak was a key member of which hacking group?

He breached Rockstar from a hotel room while on bail, using a phone, a TV and an Amazon Fire Stick, and was later given an indefinite hospital order.

Which later-disbarred attorney repeatedly sued over GTA, calling it a "murder simulator"?

His most famous case tied GTA III and Vice City to the 2003 shooting of three Alabama police officers by 17-year-old Devin Moore.

Guinness World Records named Grand Theft Auto the most what video game series in history?

The citation counted more than 4,000 articles accusing it of glamorising violence and corrupting players.

Which actor voices Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV?

Niko arrives in Liberty City hunting the man who betrayed his army unit to an ambush ten years earlier.

How many copies did Grand Theft Auto IV sell within 24 hours of release?

That first day brought in about $310 million; the game passed $500 million within a week.

GTA IV's ragdoll animation used which NaturalMotion software?

NaturalMotion engineers worked on-site at Rockstar North for months at a time to make it run in gameplay.

Which Miami Vice star voices Lance Vance in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City?

Danny Dyer plays band manager Kent Paul and Tom Sizemore is Tommy's boss Sonny Forelli.

How many lines of recorded dialogue does Vice City contain, four times the amount in GTA III?

It also packs 90 minutes of cutscenes and nine hours of music across more than 113 songs and commercials.

Which two crime films did the Vice City team borrow themes from?

Carlito's Way was chosen for its nuanced criminals; the game itself is set in 1986.

San Andreas's city of Las Venturas is modelled on which real city?

Los Santos stands in for Los Angeles and San Fierro for San Francisco; the team visited each for photography.

By what margin did San Andreas's first-week sales outsell Vice City?

In the US alone it sold 2.06 million units in six days and generated $235 million in its first week.

Which real LAPD affair helped shape San Andreas's story of corrupt CRASH officers?

The 1990s crack epidemic, the 1992 riots and the Bloods–Crips rivalry also fed into the narrative.