This past week saw the release of nearly half an hour of gorgeous gameplay from Grand Theft Auto 6, followed by a number of interviews and features about aspects of the game. One point that was made among the bevy of stories: GTA 6 would not have any microtransactions.
Even in a single-player, offline game, that is still normally something to celebrate in 2026, given that many developers will jam additional purchases in there anyway, but in Rockstar’s case it’s a bit different It is beyond obvious that GTA 6 Online will print money through its own microtransactions for the live, multiplayer mode. But where, exactly, is GTA 6 Online?
We find ourselves in a very different situation than we were in when Grand Theft Auto 5 was released. GTA 5 was out on September 17, 2013, and GTA Online came out just two weeks later on October 1, 2013. We know that GTA 6 is out November 19, 2026, but there’s no GTA 6 Online two weeks later. Or two months later. I mean, we don’t even know if it will be two years later.
Rockstar has said absolutely nothing about GTA 6 Online, an evolution of GTA 5 Online and what will be a deluge of revenue after its release. In the lead-up to GTA 6, however, the focus has been relentless on the core game, and Rockstar is even giving a month of GTA+, the current GTA Online subscription service, as a preorder bonus, which says a lot. Why is this happening? Why isn’t Rockstar opening the theme park gates or even talking about GTA 6 Online yet? A few reasons:
- The Final Sprint – GTA 6 has taken 13 years to get to and has been delayed multiple times already. Rockstar has said publicly that it is still working on the “almost done” GTA 6, which has surprised some, but it is the case that in game development, those final months contain a whole lot of polish. Rockstar also does not want to take any chances that it could badly screw something up for a Cyberpunk 2077-style disaster launch. It is all hands on deck for GTA 6, which is not to say no one is working on future online content for the game, but there was no way it could have been an at-launch priority with the amount of work that has gone into making GTA 6 so impressive and expansive.
- GTA Online Still Prints Money – A main reason that GTA 5 has had record long-tail sales after all this time is the success and endurance of GTA Online, which has received countless expansions and upgrades, and spawned entire genres to itself like GTA Roleplay. GTA Online has been a money printer for a decade, peaking in the 2020 pandemic with $744 million in microtransaction spending in a year, but even now, still making around $400 million a year, 13 years after release. So, no real urgency to move on.
- The Transition – And how do you move on? That is likely something Rockstar has been putting their heads together to figure out. You have a very old but very profitable ongoing game that continues to earn alongside what will be an all-time record launch of its sequel. While it’s obvious that a GTA 6 Online launch would dwarf current GTA Online spending, the timing is key.
The most likely situation here is that we are a year or two out, at least, from GTA 6 Online, rather than two weeks, and that will very clearly not come with the end-of-service for GTA Online. Rockstar will wait for the dust to settle on the enormous sales of GTA 6 over time, while simultaneously tracking the likely drop in revenue of GTA Online once there’s a new game to play, online component or not. Then, picking a time when both GTA 6 Online can blow the doors open with revenue while also making current GTA Online players feel secure their game isn’t going anywhere if they don’t transition. And starting over may really be a hard sell for some after 13 years, even if GTA 6 is the hot new thing.
So, this collection of reasons is why GTA 6 Online isn’t here, or even being whispered about yet. That will change down the road, but it’s going to be nothing but the base game for the foreseeable future.
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