1997Grand Theft Auto1 / 18
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GTH / 1997—2026Independent digital archive
The evolution of an open-world icon

Grand Theft History

Eighteen selected chapters. Four timeline sections. From the top-down cities of 1997 to the announced return to Vice City in GTA VI.

18Chapters
29Years
04Sections
ERA 01 / 04

Pixels · payphones · overhead chaos

The
2D world

Before the cinematic camera, the city was a moving map. Four releases established the freedom, satire and geography that everything else would build on.

$00024750★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
BONUS MULTIPLIER × 3
POWERINSERT DISC
FAN-MADE REIMAGINING / 1997 RELEASEThe whole city fit inside one glowing screen.
01 / 18Liberty · Vice · San Andreas

The open city

Grand Theft Auto

A top-down city becomes a toy box: steal a car, ignore the route and make your own trouble.

Protagonist
Selectable player character
Story setting
1997
Selected platforms PC · PlayStation
Side missions / essential detours

London calling

CASE 02

London 1969

The formula crosses the Atlantic, swaps the mood and proves the city itself can be the star.

LondonPC · PlayStation
CASE 03

London 1961

A free mission pack turns one detour through London into a miniature era of its own.

LondonPC
04 / 18Anywhere City

Respect the gangs

GTA 2

A darker near-future city adds rival factions, reputation and a sharper arcade rhythm.

Protagonist
Claude Speed
Story setting
Unspecified near future
Selected platforms PC · PlayStation · Dreamcast
THE DEFINING JUMP · 2001 · The map comes alive

The map wakes

  1. 01Map
  2. 02Rise
  3. 03Descend
  4. 04Tunnel
  5. 05Liberty
ERA 02 / 04

The camera hits the street

The
3D era

Six releases from 2001 to 2006. Liberty City supplied the depth, Vice City the style, and San Andreas the scale. GTA Advance returned to an overhead view within the same story universe.

Original gold-and-black tribute montage of a fictional character, classic sedan and illustrated guns against a Liberty City-inspired skyline.
CHAPTER 05 / 18LIBERTY CITY · 2001

Welcome to Portland

grandtheft autoIII

No connections.
A whole city of possibilities.

A getaway car, a ringing phone, and three islands of trouble. In 2001, GTA III brought the series into a fully 3D Liberty City.

Pick up the phone CHAPTER BRIEF

INCOMING CALL / THE THIRD DIMENSION

In GTA III, players follow Claude through Portland, Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale—taking on jobs and exploring Liberty City.

First released
2001
Selected platforms
PlayStation 2 · Xbox · PC
Open the release record
01 PORTLAND02 STAUNTON03 SHORESIDEAI-assisted fan art · Invented character, not GTA canon
Original illustration of a neon tropical boulevard at sunset
06 / 18Vice City

A city with a soundtrack

Vice City

Neon, ocean haze and an unmistakable decade turn location into personality.

Protagonist
Tommy Vercetti
Story setting
1986
Selected platforms PlayStation 2 · Xbox · PC

AI-assisted fan illustration · Not official artwork or gameplay

02 / Memory stop

Vice City memory

Turn the dial. Own the night.

Scroll tunes sunset into neon
17:42$00001986

♥ 100

☆☆☆☆☆☆

VICE CITY · 1986

Ocean Beach

One last ride before San Andreas
Original illustration of a golden-hour West Coast city expanding toward mountains
07 / 18Los Santos · San Fierro · Las Venturas

A whole state

San Andreas

Three cities, countryside and character progression make the world feel impossibly broad.

Protagonist
Carl “CJ” Johnson
Story setting
1992
Selected platforms PlayStation 2 · Xbox · PC

AI-assisted fan illustration · Not official artwork or gameplay

03 / Memory stop

San Andreas memory

One city becomes a state.

Keep driving beyond Los Santos
Side missions / essential detours

The portable cities

CASE 08

GTA Advance

A pocket-sized return to the overhead viewpoint keeps the original perspective alive.

Liberty CityGame Boy Advance
CASE 09

Liberty City Stories

A full 3D Liberty City arrives in your hands without shrinking its attitude.

Liberty CityPSP · PlayStation 2
CASE 10

Vice City Stories

The portable chapter gives businesses and territory a bigger role in the neon city.

Vice CityPSP · PlayStation 2
ERA 03 / 04

Physics · performance · persistence

High
definition

The cities become denser, their stories overlap, and one Los Santos grows into a living service spanning generations.

Official GTA IV artwork of Niko Bellic pulling on his gloves in front of Liberty City
11 / 18Liberty City

The HD universe

GTA IV

Weight, physics and a denser city replace caricature with a colder, more grounded world.

Protagonist
Niko Bellic
Story setting
2008
Selected platforms PlayStation 3 · Xbox 360 · PC

Official key art · Fan-made AI-assisted animation, not gameplay

Side missions / essential detours

One city, three more stories

CASE 12

The Lost and Damned

The same streets tell a rougher parallel story from the seat of a motorcycle.

Liberty CityXbox 360 · PC · PlayStation 3
CASE 13

Chinatown Wars

A graphic-novel look and tactile systems reinvent the overhead view for handheld screens.

Liberty CityNintendo DS · PSP · Mobile
CASE 14

The Ballad of Gay Tony

Nightlife, color and airborne excess reveal a brighter side of the same concrete city.

Liberty CityXbox 360 · PC · PlayStation 3
Official GTA V artwork of Franklin, Michael and Trevor against a map of Los Santos
15 / 18Los Santos · Blaine County

Three lives, one world

GTA V

Michael, Franklin and Trevor share a story across Los Santos and Blaine County, with players switching between the three protagonists.

Protagonist
Michael De Santa · Franklin Clinton · Trevor Philips
Story setting
2013 · prologue: 2004
Selected platforms PlayStation · Xbox · PC

Official key art · Fan-made AI-assisted animation, not gameplay

Official GTA Online artwork showing a masked heist crew, a police car and a green sports car
16 / 18Southern San Andreas

The living city

GTA Online

Heists, businesses and regular updates have kept the online world evolving since its 2013 launch.

Protagonist
Your custom character
Story setting
2013 onward · evolves with updates
Selected platforms PlayStation · Xbox · PC

Official key art · Fan-made AI-assisted animation, not gameplay

Side missions / essential detours

The past returns

CASE 17

The Trilogy — Definitive

GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas return together as a remastered collection.

Liberty · Vice · San AndreasPlayStation · Xbox · Switch · PC · Mobile
INTERACTION / WORLD THEMES

The world switch

Different cities.
Different worlds.

Explore the settings through fan-made schematics. These shapes and roads are not the game maps and do not compare their actual sizes.

STATE OF SAN ANDREASFAN-MADE SCHEMATIC
2013 / WORLD 5GTA V

Los Santos & Blaine County

MAP SCALENOT MEASURED
SETTINGCity, mountains, desert and oceanDecorative interpretation
WORLD
SWITCH

Fan-made schematics, not game maps. Unsupported area estimates and size ratios have been removed. GTA VI geography is not reconstructed from speculation.

INTELLIGENCE / PUBLIC RECORD

The commercial story

The biggest
score.

Not profit. Not internet guesses. These are the moments Take-Two put on the record—launch sales, reported copies and the occasional number it chose not to reveal.

Drag to turnor use arrow keys

First three days$1B+estimated worldwide retail sales
FILE / GTA-5-LAUNCHLaunch retail sales
$1B+estimated worldwide retail sales

GTA V

Take-Two estimated retail sales above one billion dollars in three days, describing it as the fastest entertainment property to reach that milestone.

Recorded
First three days
Measure
estimated worldwide retail sales
Open original record Take-Two · September 2013
ARCHIVE NOTE / NO VERIFIED LIFETIME REVENUE TOTAL INCLUDED
Grand Theft AutoLondon 1969 / 1961GTA 2GTA AdvanceLiberty City StoriesVice City StoriesChinatown WarsEpisodes from Liberty CityThe Definitive Edition

A blank record is not zero. This archive has not verified a standalone lifetime revenue total for these titles. Unit-sales milestones are a different measure; this is not a claim that no figures were ever published.

AUDIENCE / REPORTED UNITS

Every copy leaves a light on

Copies on
the street.

Follow the disclosed milestones. The road grows, the city wakes up and a console hit becomes a global skyline.

MILESTONE NIGHT DRIVE2026 / Grand Theft AutoRepresentation, not geographic scale

Figures are snapshots from the date shown, not like-for-like lifetime totals. “Sold-in” means units delivered into retail channels.

ROCKSTAR ARCHIVE / OFFICIAL YOUTUBE

Remember opening the case?

The
trailers

Choose a case to preview a selected GTA trailer, then watch it on Rockstar Games’ YouTube channel. These cases are a fan-made interface, not physical products.

GTH / TRAILER SELECTIONChoose a caseSix selected trailers · anniversary videos and first looks

The longest road / 2013—2026

Since 2013.
Still expanding.

One Los Santos. Three console generations.
Scroll through the years that kept it alive.

YEAR ON THE ROAD2013
CHAPTER 01 / 10

The city opens

Los Santos becomes a shared world.

↓ Drive forward
↑ Rewind the years
Read the complete road log
  1. The city opens

    Los Santos becomes a shared world.

  2. Heists

    Four-player scores reshape the endgame.

  3. CEO era

    CEO offices and Special Cargo warehouses arrive in Finance and Felony.

  4. Gunrunning

    Bunkers and a new underground economy.

  5. The Diamond

    A casino becomes the city's brightest landmark.

  6. Cayo Perico

    A separate island hosts a heist playable solo or with a crew.

  7. New generation

    The city crosses into its third console era.

  8. Ten years

    A decade of players, crews and reinvention.

  9. PC evolves

    The enhanced edition brings the latest systems forward.

  10. The road ahead

    GTA VI is announced for November 19; this is not a GTA Online update.

ERA 04 / 04 · PLANNED NOVEMBER 19, 2026

Same coast. A new horizon.

Leonida

Jason and Lucia lead the return to Vice City, with a new story stretching across the state of Leonida.

Protagonist
Jason & Lucia
Story setting
Modern day · exact year unconfirmed
Announced platforms PlayStation 5 · Xbox Series X|S
Official details & latest videos ↗ · Checked September 13, 2026
18 / 18GTA VIVice City · Leonida

Selected chapters · 1997—2026

From above
to Leonida.

BONUS STOP / 02Merchandise outpostOfficial gear and optional affiliate picks
Keep the timeline going

Find us between chapters.

GTA history, fan conversations and the road to GTA VI.