By Online Games VIP Editorial
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Rockstar says GTA 6 has a playable area twice the size of GTA 5 and three times that of Red Dead Redemption 2, with hundreds of interiors.
Grand Theft Auto 6 will have Rockstar Games' largest open world yet, according to reporting by IGN. Rockstar confirmed to The New York Times and YouTuber TGG that GTA 6's playable area is three times larger than the playable area in Red Dead Redemption 2, while TGG reported that it is twice the size of Grand Theft Auto 5.
IGN also reports that Vice City itself is twice the size of Los Santos from GTA 5. When the surrounding suburbs are included, Vice City and its neighboring areas are 11 times larger than Los Santos and its surrounding areas. TGG additionally revealed that GTA 6 will include hundreds of accessible interiors, a detail that could matter as much as the raw size of the map when players begin exploring Leonida.
The clearest comparison is the overall playable area. According to IGN's report on information provided by Rockstar Games, GTA 6's map is twice the size of GTA 5's map. Rockstar also confirmed to The New York Times and TGG, as reported by IGN, that the new game's playable area is three times larger than the playable area of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Those comparisons establish a broad ranking among Rockstar's recent open-world games. GTA 5 remains the smallest of the three by the measurements reported here, Red Dead Redemption 2 sits between it and GTA 6, and GTA 6 is the largest. The available information does not provide a square-mile figure, a map image with a measurement scale, or a breakdown of how land and water contribute to the totals.
IGN's reporting also separates Vice City from the wider Leonida setting. Rockstar's fictional Florida-inspired city is twice the size of Los Santos from GTA 5, according to the information shared with TGG. The comparison becomes much larger when the surrounding suburbs are counted: Vice City and those suburbs are reported to be 11 times bigger than Los Santos and its surrounding areas.
That distinction is important because players will not experience the map as one undifferentiated number. The city, its outskirts, and the wider world may each offer different types of activity and movement. However, Rockstar has not provided the detailed geographic breakdown needed to say exactly how much of the total map is urban, suburban, rural, or otherwise structured.
GTA 5 gave players a large connected setting built around Los Santos and the surrounding areas. IGN notes that GTA 6's wider Vice City region will be substantially larger by Rockstar's own comparison, with the full city-and-suburbs area reaching 11 times the size of Los Santos and its surrounding areas.
The reported figures do not mean every part of GTA 6 will feel 11 times as large during ordinary play. That is analysis rather than a confirmed Rockstar measurement of travel time or usable activity. A larger map can spread destinations farther apart, create more room between major locations, or concentrate more points of interest within a smaller section of the world. The available source material confirms the scale comparison, but it does not explain how often players will cross the full map or how the campaign will guide them through it.
IGN's report makes one practical difference clearer: GTA 6 is not only expanding the boundaries around a familiar city. It is also increasing the size of the central urban area. Vice City alone is reported to be twice the size of Los Santos, before the surrounding suburbs and other parts of the wider setting are considered.
For players, that could affect how the city is learned and navigated. A larger urban area may allow more separation between districts and more room for contrasting neighborhoods, businesses, roads, and mission locations. This is player-focused analysis, not a confirmed list of locations. Rockstar has not published a complete map or identified every district that will be available at launch.
Red Dead Redemption 2 provides a different point of comparison because its world is built around the Wild West rather than a modern coastal city. According to IGN, Rockstar Games told The New York Times and TGG that GTA 6's playable area is three times larger than the playable area in Red Dead Redemption 2.
IGN also reports that Rockstar's Rob Nelson discussed how the studio used lessons from building Red Dead Redemption 2 when developing GTA 6. Nelson described the earlier game as a project where Rockstar had the team, technology, and time to push further toward a consistent, fully realized world. He connected that approach with open-world populations, design, gameplay, and the possibility of players becoming distracted while traveling through the setting.
In the context of GTA 6, the significance is not simply that the map is bigger. IGN's account presents the new game as a continuation of Rockstar's effort to make its worlds more populated, complex, and layered. The source does not confirm that every system from Red Dead Redemption 2 returns in the same form, and it does not provide a feature-by-feature comparison between the two games.
Analysis: Red Dead Redemption 2's relevance is best understood as a design reference rather than a guarantee about GTA 6's content. A larger map only becomes meaningful if the world gives players reasons to move through it. The reported focus on population, design, and gameplay suggests that Rockstar is thinking about density and activity alongside geography, but the source does not establish how those systems will work in practice.
One of the more concrete details in IGN's report concerns buildings rather than the map's outer boundaries. TGG revealed that GTA 6 will have “hundreds” of accessible interiors, according to IGN. The source does not provide an exact count or explain whether all of those interiors will be available at all times.
IGN contrasts this with GTA 5, where players could enter the protagonists' homes, various shops, and a small number of other buildings, including the Los Santos police station. The report says GTA 5 generally did not offer a large number of enterable locations. IGN also notes that GTA Online has added more interiors over time, although those locations often involve loading screens and restrictive access.
The GTA 6 extended look has already shown a range of interiors both during missions and outside missions, IGN reports. That evidence does not confirm the final distribution of those locations, but it gives the map-size comparison a more practical angle. If many buildings can be entered as part of ordinary exploration, the map may feel more layered than a similarly large world made mostly of roads and exterior spaces.
Analysis: Interiors can change the rhythm of open-world exploration. They can give players short destinations within a longer journey, create more visual variety in dense areas, and make buildings feel less like scenery. At the same time, the number of accessible interiors alone does not reveal how interactive they will be, whether they contain activities, or how frequently players will have a reason to visit them. Those details remain unconfirmed.
What remains unknown about the map
Rockstar's reported comparisons answer the question of relative size, but they leave several important questions open. There is no confirmed square-mile measurement in the supplied information, and no published calculation showing the exact area of Vice City, the suburbs, or the complete Leonida map. The figures also do not specify whether the comparisons use identical methods for every game beyond the description of GTA 6's playable area.
The source does not confirm the number of towns, rural regions, islands, landmarks, or mission locations in GTA 6. It also does not establish how much of the map will be available at different points in the story. Rockstar has not, in the supplied material, explained whether any sections will be restricted, unlocked gradually, or designed primarily for missions.
The “hundreds” of interiors are similarly broad information. An exact total is not confirmed. Neither is the proportion that will be accessible during free exploration, the presence of loading screens, or the extent to which interiors will support activities beyond missions. Those are the next details worth watching as Rockstar releases more information.
Another open question is how the expanded world will affect travel. The size ratios do not confirm vehicle speeds, fast travel, transport systems, road layouts, or the average distance between activities. They also cannot establish whether GTA 6 will feel slower or faster than GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2. Those judgments will require more footage, a fuller map presentation, or player access to the game.
For players, the confirmed information points to two related ambitions. First, Rockstar is expanding the physical space beyond the scale of GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Second, the studio appears to be increasing the amount of accessible space within that world through the reported interior count and the broader approach to world design discussed by Rob Nelson, as reported by IGN.
A large map can support more varied journeys, but size by itself is not a measure of quality. The strongest implication from the available evidence is that GTA 6's world is being designed to offer more room and more layers at the same time. Vice City's reported size gives the urban portion greater scope, while the surrounding suburbs and wider setting provide additional space beyond the city center.
That remains an interpretation until Rockstar details the map's regions and systems. The confirmed facts are narrower but still significant: GTA 6's playable area is reported to be twice the size of GTA 5 and three times the playable area of Red Dead Redemption 2; Vice City is twice the size of Los Santos; the city and surrounding suburbs are 11 times larger than Los Santos and its surrounding areas; and hundreds of interiors are expected to be accessible. The next evidence to watch is a clearer map breakdown and more information about what players can actually do across that space.