GTA 6 vs Red Dead Redemption 2: what the official record says is different

The short answer

Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto VI come from the same studio, and their official records rhyme in places: both were announced, delayed twice and finally dated about a year past their first window, and both stories start with a job going wrong. The officially stated differences are sharper. RDR2 is set in "America, 1899" and follows Arthur Morgan; GTA VI is set in present-day Vice City and the state of Leonida with two leads, Jason and Lucia. RDR2 launched on PS4 and Xbox One with an online mode added a month later; GTA VI launches only on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Rockstar calls it "a single player experience". RDR2 reached PC a year after launch; GTA VI has no PC version announced.

Everything below comes from Rockstar Newswire, Rockstar's GTA VI page, the US PlayStation and Xbox listings and Take-Two's latest quarterly filing, checked on October 13, 2026. Where GTA VI has no official figure, the page says so rather than borrowing one from RDR2.

Side by side

	Red Dead Redemption 2	Grand Theft Auto VI
Setting	America, 1899, across "the five states"	Present-day Vice City and the state of Leonida
Lead	Arthur Morgan, inside the Van der Linde gang	Two leads: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos
First announced window	Fall 2017 (announced October 18, 2016)	2025 (Trailer 1, December 5, 2023)
Delays	Two: Spring 2018, then October 26, 2018	Two: May 26, 2026, then November 19, 2026
Launch platforms	PS4 and Xbox One	PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only
Enhanced-console badge	PS4 Pro Enhanced	PS5 Pro Enhanced
Online	Red Dead Online beta from November 27, 2018; up to 32 players on the PlayStation listing	"A single player experience"; 1 player, offline play enabled
PC	November 5, 2019	Not announced
Current-gen consoles	Plays via backward compatibility	Native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S game
Editions	Standard, Special and Ultimate	Standard and Ultimate
Published size	Up to 123 GB (standalone Red Dead Online, 2020)	None published
Sold-in to date	More than 85 million units	Not released

Setting and story: 1899 against the present day

PlayStation's RDR2 listing opens with a date: "America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs." Rockstar's PC launch post describes "the story of Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang, on the run from the law across America in the final days of the 19th Century." The map is a fictional America that Rockstar's Red Dead Online announcement calls "the five states".

GTA VI moves to "Vice City, USA" and a "criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida", in the wording on Rockstar's page. Instead of one lead inside a gang, the story is built around a pair, Jason and Lucia, "forced to rely on each other more than ever".

The opening premise is where the two official summaries line up. In RDR2, "a robbery goes badly wrong in the western town of Blackwater" and the gang has to flee. In GTA VI, "an easy score goes wrong" and Jason and Lucia land in the middle of the conspiracy. That is a parallel in the published blurbs, not a statement from Rockstar about shared story design. For GTA VI's named places, see the Leonida map regions page.

Two delays each, about a year late each

RDR2 was announced on October 18, 2016 for "Fall 2017". On May 22, 2017 Rockstar moved it to Spring 2018, calling it "the first Rockstar game created from the ground up for the latest generation of console hardware." On February 1, 2018 it set October 26, 2018, saying "we require a little extra time for polish."

GTA VI followed a similar path. Trailer 1 on December 5, 2023 said "Coming 2025". On May 2, 2025 Rockstar moved it to May 26, 2026, and on November 6, 2025 to Thursday, November 19, 2026, so the team could "finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve."

Both games therefore shipped, or will ship, roughly a year past the window first announced, after two public moves. RDR2's track record shows that its final date held. It does not prove that GTA VI's will; the full sequence is on the release date history page.

Platforms: last generation against current generation only

RDR2 launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Its PlayStation listing still sells the "PS4 Version" with a "PS4 Pro Enhanced" badge. Rockstar has not released a native PS5 or Xbox Series version; its 2020 Red Dead Online announcement says the PS4 and Xbox One versions "will be playable via backward compatibility on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series hardware."

GTA VI is a current-generation game only. PlayStation lists it for PS5 with a "PS5 Pro Enhanced" badge and states that "the game is not playable on PlayStation 4." The Xbox Store marks it "Optimized for Xbox Series X|S". There is no Xbox One version. The current list is on the platforms page.

Online: shipped later, against not announced

RDR2 was announced with online play from the start: its 2016 post says the world would "provide the foundation for a brand new online multiplayer experience." Red Dead Online did not ship on day one. Its beta opened to early-access players on November 27, 2018, a month after launch, and to all owners on November 30. Rockstar described posses of "up to seven players", and today's PlayStation listing says it "supports up to 32 online players with PS Plus." In December 2020 it also went on sale as a standalone game.

GTA VI's record points the other way. Rockstar's pre-order post of June 24, 2026 says: "Grand Theft Auto VI is a single player experience." PlayStation's listing shows "1 player" and "Offline play enabled", and the Xbox Store lists the capability "Single player". Nothing official rules out an online mode later, and nothing announces one. What Rockstar has said about GTA Online and GTA+ around the launch is on the GTA Online and GTA+ page.

PC: a year later, against nothing yet

RDR2 came to PC on November 5, 2019, 375 days after the console launch. Rockstar announced the date on October 4, 2019, about a month in advance, and called it "the first game in the Red Dead Redemption series to be featured on the PC platform." GTA VI has no PC version on Rockstar's page and no PC date anywhere official. RDR2 is one precedent, not a promise; the PC status page tracks only what Rockstar says.

Editions, size and the box

RDR2 was sold in Standard, Special and Ultimate Editions; Rockstar's PC announcement names the two premium tiers. GTA VI has two, Standard and Ultimate, and Rockstar says its physical version contains "a download code inside the box".

The only install figure Rockstar has published in this comparison is for RDR2's online side: the standalone Red Dead Online "will require up to 123GB of disk space", according to its 2020 announcement. That is not a GTA VI number. No store has published a GTA VI install size, as the file size and pre-load page explains.

Ratings descriptors on the US PlayStation listings

The two US listings carry overlapping but not identical ESRB descriptors. RDR2: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, plus "In-Game Purchases, Users Interact". GTA VI: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, plus "In-Game Purchases". GTA VI adds Mature Humor and lists Strong Sexual Content where RDR2 has Sexual Content. Other regions use other systems; see the age rating page.

Scale

Take-Two's 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 says RDR2 "has sold-in more than 85 million units worldwide", next to GTA V's "over 230 million". The same filing gives GTA VI's date, November 19, 2026, and no unit expectation, so there is no official GTA VI figure to set against RDR2's.

Verdict

On the official record, these are different kinds of release. RDR2 is a finished last-generation game, set in 1899, with one lead, an online mode, a PC version and a published sales total. GTA VI is a present-day, two-lead, current-generation game that Rockstar presents as single player, with no PC version and no published size yet. The parallels, two delays and a heist gone wrong, are real but tell you nothing about map size or performance, which Rockstar has not published for GTA VI. For everything that is and isn't confirmed, start from the official information overview.