Summary
The anticipation surroundingGrand Theft Auto 6’s upcoming reveal trailer is almost palpable, as it’s been nearly a decade of rumors and speculation about the time. The upcomingGTA 6revealwill also put several rumors to rest, and while it remains to be seen what all it entails, it’s bound to be a big moment for the industry.
As it stands,Grand Theft Auto 6will be the next entry in the beloved open-world crime franchise, but a lot has changed in the past decade or so since its launch. Open-world games have become bigger, andgames likeElden Ringhave innovated on open-world game design. But the most important part of any open world is how the world is filled in. If it’s big but too empty, it leaves fans wanting more, yet filling in every space with activities can make it feel bloated. It’s importantGrand Theft Auto 6strike a fine line, and at the very least, it’s easy to trust Rockstar Games with this. However, one question many will no doubt be curious about as more and more of the game is revealed ishow big the map of Grand Theft Auto 6 is/will be.
Rockstar’sGrand Theft Auto 5andRed Dead Redemption 2have different strengths, but both are prime examples of open-world games. Looking at these should provide a good baseline for knowing how big the map should be, at least, in order to strike that aforementioned balance. Both are very close in size.Grand Theft Auto 5clocks in at 31 Square Miles, whileRed Dead Redemption 2is 30 miles. However, they will feel very different. WhileGTA 5has some areas of open roads and wilderness, players are often within various sections of the main city or the surrounding locations. Meanwhile,Red Dead Redemption 2is more “open” as players explore the Wild West. The balance of each is remarkable as well.GTA 5does not feel like it has any sort of open-world bloat, whileRed Dead Redemption 2does not feel empty.
30 Square Miles
GTA 5, RDR2, and GTA 6 Map Sizes
The most obvious conclusion would be forGTA 6to hit this size overall, putting it around 30 Square Miles. It would likely be more in the vein ofGTA 5,meaning that the rumored world of Vice City would be densely packed with a few areas that open up. This would be ideal, but at the same time, it’s known thatGTA 5andRed Dead 2both had issues with crunch. The map size may have only been one factor in that, but as Rockstar moves away from crunch culture, it’s been rumored before thatGTA 6’s mapwould be smaller but expand over time. That’s a good method too, and a map of 15-20 Square Miles would work.
As such, it’s worth pointing out thatSkyrim’s map size, another open-world benchmark, was just 15 Square Miles. It doesn’t necessarily feel smaller thanGTA 5orRDR2, but that’s part of some excellent design by Bethesda, a few visual trickeries, and so forth.Skyrimshows how a world can be made, be relatively small in comparison to other worlds, and still achieve its goals. Of course, one city will eat up a chunk ofGTA 6, but it shows thatGTA 6could be as small as 15-20 square miles and be plenty of content for players to enjoy. At the same time, 30 has been what past Rockstar games have been, and while some could perhaps a game a decade later to be bigger than that, there’s really no need. 15-30 would really be ideal for GTA 6.
How Maps Have Gotten Bigger In the Years Between GTA 5 and GTA 6
Open-world gameshave changed a lot, and specifically, they’ve gotten bigger. Recent years have proven, however, that bigger isn’t always better.Elden Ring, which is perhaps the most innovative open-world game as of late, is actually comparable in size toGTA 5andRDR2. It comes in at 30.5 Square Miles, but there are plenty of games that exploded beyond this.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
53 Square Miles
There are just a handful of recent examples, butFinal Fantasy 15andAssassin’s Creed Odysseyhave often been accused of being empty. Each of these are good games in its own right, with plenty of fans for all of them, but it does pose the question if these games needed all of this map and if they could have been smaller and better. The answer will vary from person to person, and the answer will vary for Rockstar andGrand Theft Auto 6. But just because the open-world genre has seen expansion, change, and growth doesn’t mean that every single change has been positive for the genre or positive for the industry. Whatever sizeGTA 6size turns out to be, it needs to be something positive to the experience.
Grand Theft Auto 5
WHERE TO PLAY
When a young street hustler, a retired bank robber and a terrifying psychopath find themselves entangled with some of the most frightening and deranged elements of the criminal underworld, the U.S. government and the entertainment industry, they must pull off a series of dangerous heists to survive in a ruthless city in which they can trust nobody, least of all each other.Grand Theft Auto V for PC offers players the option to explore the award-winning world of Los Santos and Blaine County in resolutions of up to 4k and beyond, as well as the chance to experience the game running at 60 frames per second.The game offers players a huge range of PC-specific customization options, including over 25 separate configurable settings for texture quality, shaders, tessellation, anti-aliasing and more, as well as support and extensive customization for mouse and keyboard controls. Additional options include a population density slider to control car and pedestrian traffic, as well as dual and triple monitor support, 3D compatibility, and plug-and-play controller support.
