GTA 6 Release Date Might Be Coming Into Focus

GTA 6's release date might be coming into focus. With Mafia: The Old Country's release date in early August 2025 recently leaking and Borderlands 4 coming on September 23, 2025, many are wondering what this means for GTA 6's release date. The developers of those games share a parent company in Take-Two, and the company no doubt wants to space them out.

In this post, we're rounding up what we know about GTA 6's release date and how Mafia: The Old Country and Borderlands 4 getting release dates might factor into the puzzle of when GTA 6 will release.

GTA 6 in Fall 2025

GTA 6 is officially set for release in Fall 2025 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, a window that parent company Take-Two has committed to on multiple occasions, including recently in February 2025. Fall 2025 begins in the Northern hemisphere on September 22. With Borderlands 4 set for release on September 23, it seems it would be Take-Two's first release of Fall 2025. So what does this mean for GTA 6's release date? We don't know, but there are clues.

Mafia: The Old Country In August

A recent leak suggested that Mafia: The Old Country will release on August 8, 2025. August is before the start of the Fall season, so it was never likely going to release in the same window as GTA 6 anyway. Now, it appears Take-Two's release slate to close out the year is wicked stacked. If everything is real and holds, the release schedule looks like Mafia: The Old Country in August, a presumed launch of NBA 2K26 in September, a confirmed debut of Borderlands 4 also in September, and then GTA 6 later on.

Room to breathe

Back in November 2024, Take-Two president Strauss Zelnick said he wouldn't expect GTA 6 and Borderlands 4 to be released close to one another. "I think it's safe to say that we wouldn't--and no one would--stack up huge releases unnecessarily," he said.

Borderlands is a gigantic franchise for Take-Two's 2K Games division, selling more than 91 million units across the franchise so far. Borderlands 3 was 2K's fastest-selling game ever and has reached more than 22 million units during its lifetime. Borderlands 2, however, remains the franchise's best-selling game ever with more than 30 million copies sold.

Expectations are high for Borderlands 4, so it stands to reason that Take-Two would want the game to have the best chance to succeed, and not releasing it in the vicinity of GTA 6 is probably something the company is looking to do.

But just how much space does Take-Two want or need between Borderlands 4 and GTA 6? No one knows. A highly anticipated video game like Borderlands 4 is likely to be front-loaded in terms of its sales curve, so to maximize sales out of the gate, Take-Two probably wants to give it a good amount of space between it and GTA 6. Zelnick has said the company aims to be intentional with its release schedules to maximize sales.

Zelnick told IGN that when Take-Two plots out its release schedule, it does so with the aim of trying to "respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next." He added: "I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem."

The executive also observed that when a highly popular and successful title releases in the market, it drives interest in and demand for other big games. "In other words, I've said this many times, even when the hits aren't ours, they're a good thing for the industry," he said. "In this case, we hope that the hits will largely be ours. So we feel really good about it."

If Zelnick means what he says, then when could the GTA 6 release date actually be? Based on Zelnick's reasoning of giving big games room to breathe, a few weeks after Borderlands 4 might be a candidate, meaning sometime in mid to late October. November is also a possibility, but it's fairly uncommon for a major release to come around Thanksgiving in late November. December is generally less filled with major releases, too. Another possibility is that Take-Two is not following the traditional meaning of "Fall," and that GTA 6 could be released prior to Borderlands 4, as some have already theorized and interpreted based on Take-Two's own financial and press statements.

GTA 6 will succeed whenever it's released

Back in May 2024, Zelnick said there is a "fever-pitch"-level of excitement surrounding GTA 6, and that the game's release date "probably doesn't matter" because it's going to be a hit whenever it's released. Few would argue against this given the popularity of the GTA franchise and the pent-up demand for GTA 6. But Zelnick did admit that GTA 6's current Fall 2025 release window is preferable to other periods of the year due in part to the holiday shopping season.

"While it probably doesn't matter, I think we'd all rather be in the release window that we're looking at now," the executive said, referring to Fall 2025.

A possible GTA 6 delay

Every Rockstar Games release in the past decade has been delayed, and some expect this trend to continue with GTA 6. Even Zelnick has admitted he can't guarantee GTA 6 won't slip.

"Look, there's always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like 'absolutely,' you jinx things," Zelnick told IGN. At the same time, he said the company feels "really good" about GTA 6 making it out on time.

Some have theorized that GTA 6 may have actually already been delayed by way of an internal delay that was never made public. After all, reports have suggested that GTA 6 has missed multiple internal development deadlines. Even if GTA 6 was already delayed internally, if the game makes it out on time in Fall 2025, it would be Rockstar's first release in 10+ years to do so based on publicly announced dates.

The competition

Another factor at play here is the competitive landscape for game releases in Fall 2025. It's a window known to be stacked with big releases to help capitalize on the holiday shopping season. Fall is also the window when Activision historically releases its newest Call of Duty game, and that's expected to continue this year with a potential Black Ops 2 sequel. It's been reported that some rival publishers are holding back announcing dates for their upcoming 2025 games until GTA 6 gets a firm date to avoid a clash.

GTA 5 was released in September 2013, and it went on to outsell that year's Call of Duty game, Ghosts, for the full year in the US. Rockstar's next big release was 2018's Red Dead Redemption II, and it outsold that year's Call of Duty release, Black Ops 4. This is notable because Call of Duty is known to be nearly a guarantee to be the year's best-seller, apart from years when Rockstar releases a new game (or in 2023 when a juggernaut like Hogwarts Legacy dethroned Call of Duty).

For 2025, the competition from blockbuster franchises could be even stiffer, as EA is rumored to be eyeing an October 2025 release for Battlefield 6. However, EA management recently admitted that it could shift Battlefield 6's release date to avoid a certain big game in the market, with many taking that to mean GTA 6.

Outside of big FPS franchises, the Nintendo Switch 2 is launching this year and is likely to draw significant interest with expected games like Mario Kart 9 and a new 3D Mario, though the overlap with GTA 6's expected core fanbase might not be as significant compared to other games.

Zelnick acknowledged the competitive landscape surrounding GTA 6 recently, saying, "Arrogance is the enemy of continued success." He added: "We're all running scared and looking over our shoulders and we know that the competition is not asleep."

Ubisoft has said it welcomes GTA 6's arrival in the market because a gigantic game release may draw new players to gaming or call back lapsed players, which in turn increases the total size of the gaming market. This benefits everyone, Ubisoft believes.

What's next

The first trailer for GTA 6 was released in December 2023. Rockstar went an entire year in 2024 without uttering a word about GTA 6 or releasing any new trailers or images. Take-Two only spoke about GTA 6 in 2024 at the highest level, something it's continued to do in 2025. Everyone is wondering when the next GTA 6 trailer could be released, and no one knows the answer. The lack of information about GTA 6 from Rockstar over the past year-plus is giving some fans a cause for concern, whether it's warranted or not.

Take-Two will release its next earnings report this May. Release date announcements, or news about delays, is often connected to these investor briefings, so May could be the next month to circle for potential new information. For historical context, Rockstar announced in May 2017 that Red Dead Redemption II was delayed from Fall 2017 to Spring 2018. Some GTA fans fear May 2025 might bring news that GTA 6 is delayed from Fall 2025 to Spring 2026. Only time will tell.

Rockstar could release a new GTA 6 trailer and discuss the game in more detail tomorrow. No one knows. Whenever it does release, it's sure to have an outsized impact on the games industry.