Best Order to Play the GTA Games: Complete Series Guide (2026)

With GTA 6 finally arriving in 2026, there's never been a better excuse to revisit the Grand Theft Auto series—or jump into it for the first time.

The only problem is figuring out where to start.

Grand Theft Auto has been around since 1997, covering everything from top-down crime games and handheld spin-offs to huge 3D open worlds and GTA Online. And despite familiar cities, brands, and occasional returning faces, the entire series doesn't follow one continuous timeline.

So, what's the best order to play the GTA games?

For most players, we recommend release order, starting with GTA III. Below, we'll go through the main games one by one, explain what each is about, where you can play it, and which older titles you can skip if you're mainly catching up before GTA 6.

 

What Is the Best Order to Play the GTA Games?

For a first playthrough, release order is the easiest—and usually the most enjoyable—way to experience GTA.

Here's the route we'd recommend:

Order	Game	Release
1	Grand Theft Auto III	2001
2	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	2002
3	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	2004
4	Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories	2005
5	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories	2006
6	Grand Theft Auto IV	2008
7	GTA IV: The Lost and Damned	2009
8	GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony	2009
9	Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars	2009
10	Grand Theft Auto V	2013
11	GTA Online	2013–Present
12	Grand Theft Auto VI	November 19, 2026

You'll notice GTA 1, GTA 2, the London expansions, and GTA Advance aren't included in this main route.

That's intentional.

They're important parts of GTA history, and we'll come back to them later, but you don't need to play every GTA ever made to understand the modern series. Unless you're specifically interested in seeing where the franchise began, GTA III is a much more practical starting point in 2026.

It's also worth knowing that Rockstar generally separates GTA into the 2D Universe, 3D Universe, and HD Universe. They're different continuities, so you don't need to treat every game as one giant story running from the 1960s all the way to GTA 6.

 

Grand Theft Auto III

Release Date: October 22, 2001
Platforms: Originally PS2, PC, Xbox; modern versions available through GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android

If you want to see where the GTA we know today really began, GTA III is the place to start.

Set in Liberty City in 2001, the game follows silent protagonist Claude after a robbery goes badly wrong and his girlfriend Catalina betrays him. From there, Claude begins taking jobs across Liberty City's criminal underworld, crossing paths with the Mafia, Yakuza, street gangs, and plenty of people who probably shouldn't trust him.

The story is much simpler than what we'd later get in GTA IV or GTA V, but that's not really why GTA III matters.

Where Modern GTA Really Began

GTA III was the game that transformed Grand Theft Auto into the 3D open-world formula that would define the series for decades.

Driving around a city, stealing whatever car catches your eye, taking missions when you feel like it, getting distracted and causing chaos for half an hour—the basic GTA rhythm is already here.

Playing it first also makes the next two games more satisfying, because you can actually feel Rockstar expanding the formula with each release.

Just keep in mind that GTA III shows its age. The mission design and controls can feel rough by modern standards, so newcomers may prefer the Definitive Edition.

 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Release Date: October 29, 2002
Platforms: Originally PS2, PC, Xbox; modern versions available through GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android

Next stop: Vice City, 1986.

After being released from prison, Tommy Vercetti is sent south to Vice City for a drug deal that quickly turns into a disaster. Tommy loses both the money and the drugs and is told to get them back.

That search gradually becomes something much bigger, as Tommy builds connections, takes over businesses, and works his way toward controlling Vice City's criminal underworld himself.

The city is heavily inspired by 1980s Miami, with neon signs, beaches, sports cars, Hawaiian shirts, nightclubs, and a soundtrack that's still one of the most recognizable in gaming.

The Perfect Warm-Up for GTA 6

Vice City was already one of the most memorable GTA settings, but it's especially worth revisiting in 2026.

GTA 6 brings the series back to a modern interpretation of Vice City as part of the state of Leonida. It's not the same continuity—Tommy's Vice City belongs to the 3D Universe, while GTA 6 is part of the HD Universe—but seeing Rockstar's 2002 version of the city before jumping into its 2026 interpretation should make the return much more interesting.

If you're only playing a handful of older GTA games before GTA 6, Vice City should absolutely be one of them.

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Release Date: October 26, 2004
Platforms: Originally PS2, PC, Xbox; modern versions available through GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android

For a lot of longtime players, San Andreas is still the definitive classic GTA.

Set in 1992, the story follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns to Los Santos after the death of his mother. Back home, he finds his family divided and the Grove Street Families losing influence, pulling him straight back into gang conflicts and the problems he originally left behind.

What starts as a relatively local story eventually takes CJ across the entire state of San Andreas, from Los Santos to San Fierro and Las Venturas.

Classic GTA at Its Most Ambitious

San Andreas took almost everything Rockstar had learned from GTA III and Vice City and pushed it further.

You can work out, gain or lose weight, change CJ's clothes and hairstyle, fight gang wars, customize cars, gamble, date, fly planes, explore the countryside, and spend hours doing things that have absolutely nothing to do with the main story.

The map was also hugely ambitious for its time, with three major cities connected by countryside, desert, mountains, highways, and small towns.

If you only plan to play one game from the classic 3D era, San Andreas is probably the strongest all-around choice.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Release Date: October 24, 2005
Platforms: PSP, PS2; later released on mobile

Liberty City Stories takes place in 1998, three years before GTA III.

This time, you play as Toni Cipriani, who returns to Liberty City after spending time in hiding for killing a made man on behalf of the Leone crime family. Toni wants to regain his position in the organization, but Liberty City's Mafia families are already fighting for control.

If you've already played GTA III, a lot of the locations, characters, and organizations will be familiar.

That's really the appeal here: Liberty City Stories gives GTA III's world more background and lets you see the city before several changes that take place by 2001.

It's not essential for a first GTA marathon, but it's a good extra stop if GTA III left you wanting more Liberty City.

 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Release Date: October 31, 2006
Platforms: PSP, PS2

Vice City Stories goes even further back, taking place in 1984, two years before Tommy Vercetti arrives in Vice City.

The protagonist is Victor "Vic" Vance, a soldier trying to earn money to support his family. Things don't exactly go according to plan, and Vic becomes increasingly involved in Vice City's criminal world.

Over the course of the story, he gets caught up in drug trafficking, gangs, corruption, and the business of building his own criminal empire.

It's one of the easier GTA games to overlook because it began life as a PSP title, but Vice City Stories is especially interesting before GTA 6. You get another version of Vice City, more background on the Vance family, and a look at the city before Tommy's rise to power.

If you're doing the short version of a GTA marathon, you can skip it. If you're particularly interested in Vice City, keep it on the list.

 

Grand Theft Auto IV

Release Date: April 29, 2008
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC; playable on newer Xbox consoles through backward compatibility

GTA IV marks a major turning point for the series.

It's the beginning of the HD Universe, meaning GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas are no longer part of the same continuity.

The game follows Niko Bellic, an Eastern European war veteran who arrives in Liberty City after hearing his cousin Roman talk about the amazing life he's built in America.

The reality is slightly less impressive.

Roman is buried in debt, his supposed luxury lifestyle is mostly fiction, and Niko quickly gets pulled into Liberty City's criminal world while pursuing unfinished business from his past.

A Darker, More Grounded GTA

Compared with San Andreas, GTA IV can initially feel like Rockstar pulled back.

There's less customization, the world is focused entirely on Liberty City, and the tone is noticeably darker. But what it gains is one of the strongest stories and protagonists in the series.

Driving has more weight, NPCs react more dynamically, gunfights feel physical, and Liberty City has a grimy atmosphere that still separates GTA IV from GTA V.

Niko's story alone makes this worth playing even if you're not planning to finish every GTA game.

 

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

Release Date: February 17, 2009
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Don't leave Liberty City just yet.

The Lost and Damned follows Johnny Klebitz, vice president of The Lost Motorcycle Club. Johnny has been keeping the gang relatively stable while its president, Billy Grey, is away—but Billy's return immediately creates problems.

The interesting part is that its story takes place alongside GTA IV rather than simply after it.

You'll encounter familiar characters and revisit certain events from a completely different perspective. The focus on biker culture also gives Liberty City a very different feel, with motorcycles, gang loyalty, and internal conflict replacing much of Niko's immigrant-crime story.

Play it after GTA IV and those overlapping moments make much more sense.

 

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Release Date: October 29, 2009
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

The Ballad of Gay Tony gives us the third side of GTA IV's Liberty City.

You play as Luis Lopez, bodyguard and business partner to nightclub owner Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince.

And after the deliberately grounded GTA IV and biker-heavy Lost and Damned, Rockstar clearly decided it was time to have some fun again.

The Wild Side of GTA IV

Nightclubs, expensive cars, helicopters, parachuting, huge explosions—the expansion brings some of GTA's more ridiculous energy back without abandoning GTA IV's world.

More importantly, its story overlaps with both GTA IV and The Lost and Damned.

Characters who previously seemed like side players suddenly become important, and major events look very different when seen from Luis's perspective.

That's why we'd recommend playing the three Liberty City stories as:

GTA IV → The Lost and Damned → The Ballad of Gay Tony

Together, they work almost like three intersecting crime stories happening across the same city.

 

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Release Date: March 17, 2009
Platforms: Nintendo DS, PSP, iOS, Android

Chinatown Wars is an unusual one.

It belongs to the HD Universe and takes place in GTA IV's Liberty City, but its top-down presentation deliberately calls back to the earliest GTA games.

The story follows Huang Lee, the son of a murdered Triad boss. He travels to Liberty City carrying a family heirloom, only to be attacked, robbed, and left for dead shortly after arriving.

What follows is a story of Triad politics, revenge, betrayal, and Huang trying to work out who he can actually trust.

Don't let the handheld origins fool you. Chinatown Wars has plenty of clever systems of its own, and mechanically it's far closer to modern GTA than its camera angle might suggest.

It's not required reading before GTA V, but it's a fun and relatively compact detour if you're doing a deeper series run.

 

Grand Theft Auto V

Release Date: September 17, 2013
Platforms: PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

And now we reach the GTA that needs very little introduction.

GTA V takes the series back to Los Santos, this time in the HD Universe, and builds its story around three playable protagonists: Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Philips.

Michael is a retired criminal who discovers that his expensive new life hasn't made him particularly happy. Franklin is trying to move beyond small-time street crime. Trevor is Michael's old partner—and probably the last person Michael wants showing up again.

Their stories eventually collide around increasingly ambitious heists, government agencies, gang conflicts, and plenty of bad decisions.

The Essential Stop Before GTA 6

If you're preparing for GTA 6 and only have time to play one GTA game, make it GTA V.

It's the most accessible modern single-player entry, and systems such as character switching, large-scale heists, driving, shooting, open-world events, and detailed urban exploration give you the clearest idea of where Rockstar was before GTA 6.

It's also worth revisiting simply to appreciate the jump.

GTA V was originally built around 2013-era hardware. GTA 6 is Rockstar's first completely new GTA world since then.

 

GTA Online

Original Release: October 1, 2013
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S; originally available on PS3 and Xbox 360

Trying to summarize GTA Online as if it were one normal GTA campaign doesn't really work.

It started as GTA V's multiplayer component and gradually became a huge evolving game of its own, with businesses, heists, nightclubs, properties, vehicles, weapons, celebrities, returning GTA characters, and years of additional missions.

There is story content here, but you don't need to work through more than a decade of GTA Online updates before GTA 6.

If you finish GTA V and still want to spend time in Los Santos, jump in. If your goal is simply to catch up on the important single-player games, it's completely fine to move on.

 

Grand Theft Auto VI

Release Date: November 19, 2026
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S

And finally, we're heading back to Vice City.

GTA 6 takes place in the modern state of Leonida, with Vice City at the center of a much larger world.

The story follows Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos. After an easy score goes wrong, the pair find themselves caught in a criminal conspiracy stretching across Leonida and increasingly forced to rely on each other.

For longtime GTA fans, returning to Vice City after more than two decades is obviously a big deal.

Just don't expect GTA 6 to continue Tommy Vercetti's story. The original Vice City belongs to the 3D Universe, while GTA 6 takes place in the HD Universe alongside GTA IV and GTA V.

If you're following GTA 6 ahead of launch, our GTA 6 Topic Page brings together our latest coverage, including release information, gameplay details, editions, pre-order news, leaks, and more.

 

What About GTA 1, GTA 2, London and GTA Advance?

So far, we've deliberately skipped a few games.

Completionists can go further back to Grand Theft Auto (1997), where the entire franchise began. The original game uses a top-down perspective and lets you take criminal jobs across Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City—names that obviously became much more important later.

It was followed by GTA: London 1969 and the PC-only GTA: London 1961, which remain unusual entries because they move GTA outside its fictionalized American settings and into Britain.

Then came Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999), which continued the top-down formula while adding a faction reputation system and a deliberately unusual retro-futuristic atmosphere.

There's also GTA Advance (2004). Set in Liberty City in 2000, shortly before GTA III, it follows Mike as he investigates the apparent death of his partner Vinnie.

They're all part of GTA's history, but we wouldn't make any of them mandatory for a first playthrough in 2026.

Play the major 3D and HD entries first. If you end up becoming obsessed with the series, you can always come back and see where it all started.

 

GTA Games in Chronological Story Order

Release order is our recommendation, but maybe you want to experience each universe according to when its stories happen.

In that case, the order looks like this.

Just remember: these aren't all part of one timeline.

2D Universe

• GTA: London 1961 — 1961
• GTA: London 1969 — 1969
• Grand Theft Auto — 1997
• Grand Theft Auto 2 — ambiguous / near-future setting

3D Universe

• GTA: Vice City Stories — 1984
• GTA: Vice City — 1986
• GTA: San Andreas — 1992
• GTA: Liberty City Stories — 1998
• GTA Advance — 2000
• GTA III — 2001

HD Universe

• GTA IV — 2008
• The Lost and Damned — 2008
• The Ballad of Gay Tony — 2008
• GTA: Chinatown Wars — 2009
• GTA V — 2013
• GTA Online — 2013 onward
• GTA VI — 2026

GTA IV, The Lost and Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony are a special case because their stories overlap.

You could technically jump between them based on individual missions if you wanted a perfectly chronological run, but that's more trouble than it's worth for most players. Playing them in release order gives each protagonist's story room to breathe.

 

Which GTA Games Should You Play Before GTA 6?

Don't have time to work through decades of GTA before November?

You don't need to.

For a short pre-GTA 6 marathon, we'd go with:

GTA: Vice City → GTA V → GTA 6

Vice City gives you Rockstar's original take on its fictional Miami and makes returning there in GTA 6 much more meaningful.

GTA V gives you the most recent full single-player GTA experience and the clearest point of comparison for Rockstar's new open world, missions, driving, combat, NPC behavior, and storytelling.

Then you can head directly into GTA 6.

Have a little more time? Add San Andreas and GTA IV.

San Andreas shows just how ambitious classic GTA became, while GTA IV gives you a much more grounded side of the series and introduces the HD Universe that GTA 6 belongs to.

 

Should You Play GTA in Release Order or Chronological Order?

For your first run, stick with release order.

Chronological order sounds neat on paper. Vice City Stories happens before Vice City, San Andreas comes after that, and Liberty City Stories leads toward GTA III.

But there's a catch: the prequels were made with players of the earlier games in mind.

Returning characters, locations, jokes, and references often work better when you've already played the game they were originally introduced in.

Release order also lets you experience something chronological order can't really reproduce: the evolution of GTA itself.

Going from:

GTA III → Vice City → San Andreas → GTA IV → GTA V → GTA VI

lets you watch Rockstar gradually expand the series from a relatively simple 3D crime sandbox into increasingly detailed cities, more complicated characters, advanced physics, multiple protagonists, and eventually GTA 6's modern Leonida.

Chronological order is fun for a replay. Release order is better for your first trip through GTA.

 

FAQ

Do I Need to Play the GTA Games in Order?

No. Most GTA games tell stories that work perfectly well on their own.

The series is also divided into separate universes, so you don't need to know Claude's story in GTA III to understand Michael, Franklin, and Trevor in GTA V.

Which GTA Game Should I Play First?

If you want the easiest entry point in 2026, GTA V is probably the best choice.

If you want to see how modern GTA evolved over time, start with GTA III and work forward from there.

What Is the Best GTA Order Before GTA 6?

For most players:

Vice City → GTA V → GTA 6

If you have more time, add San Andreas and GTA IV.

Do I Need to Play Vice City Before GTA 6?

No.

GTA 6 isn't a direct sequel to Tommy Vercetti's story, and the two games belong to different GTA universes.

Still, playing Vice City first is highly recommended if you have time. Seeing the original 1980s interpretation of Vice City should make Rockstar's modern version much more interesting to explore.

Is GTA 6 Connected to GTA 5?

GTA V and GTA 6 both belong to the HD Universe, unlike GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, which belong to the 3D Universe.

However, GTA 6 has new central protagonists and a new main setting, so you don't need to finish GTA V before playing it.

When Does GTA 6 Release?

GTA 6 is officially scheduled to release on November 19, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

 

Conclusion

There's no mandatory way to play Grand Theft Auto, and that's part of what makes catching up on the series relatively easy.

If you want the full experience, start with GTA III and follow release order. You'll get to watch the series evolve naturally from Liberty City's early 3D streets through Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, and GTA V.

If you're mainly getting ready for GTA 6, you can make things much simpler: play Vice City and GTA V first, then head into Leonida when GTA 6 arrives.

And with GTA 6 currently scheduled for November 19, 2026, there's still time to fit in a few classics.

For more coverage before launch, visit our GTA 6 Topic Page, where we've collected our GTA 6 release news, gameplay coverage, editions, pre-order information, leaks, and other updates in one place.