GTA 6 map vs GTA 5 map: twice the size, region by region
Leonida is twice the size of GTA 5's San Andreas, and Vice City on its own is twice the size of Los Santos. Rob Nelson, head of development at Rockstar North, gave both figures to the YouTuber TGG on 27 August 2026, with a third alongside them: Vice City counted with its suburbs is eleven times the size of Los Santos and the areas around it. Set that against the player measurement of Grand Theft Auto V, 75.84 km² split into 48.15 of land and 27.69 of water, and Leonida comes out near 150 km², about 58 square miles. Rockstar has published an area for neither map, so the multiples are the official part and the kilometres are arithmetic on top of a fan count.
The two maps, number by number
- Release. Grand Theft Auto V on 17 September 2013. Grand Theft Auto VI on 19 November 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with no PC date announced.
- Whole world. GTA 5 at 75.84 km², about 29 square miles, by community measurement. Leonida at roughly twice that, near 150 km².
- Land against water. GTA 5 holds 48.15 km² of land to 27.69 km² of water, so close to 30% of the playable space is ocean. Leonida's split is unannounced, though an island chain and a wetland put water inside the map rather than only around its edge.
- Cities. One in GTA 5, Los Santos. One named so far in Leonida, Vice City, at twice the size, with five other regions carrying settlements of their own.
- Story length. About 32 hours across GTA 5's 69 main missions on HowLongToBeat's average. Nelson placed GTA 6 in Red Dead Redemption 2 territory, 50 to 60 hours, and 80 for his own run with the side material.
Only the multiples in that list came from Rockstar. The kilometres for GTA 5 were produced by players after 2013, and no publisher in this comparison has ever released an area figure.
One city and a county, against a whole state
San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto V is a single landmass with the sea on every side. Los Santos fills the south, Blaine County runs north through desert, farmland and the Alamo Sea, Mount Chiliad tops it out, and one highway loop connects the lot. Most of that 48 km² of land is countryside; the city occupies a corner of it. The map has grown once since launch, when Cayo Perico was added to GTA Online on 15 December 2020 as the first map expansion in the game's history.
Leonida is arranged the other way. Rockstar's site names six regions strung along a coast: Vice City, the Leonida Keys archipelago to the south, the Grassrivers wetlands, the faded resort strip of Port Gellhorn, the sugar-refinery country of Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park on the northern fringe. Each has its own character in Rockstar's own copy, from boat parties and dive bars in the Keys to hunting and fishing at Kalaga.
The practical difference is what a journey looks like. In GTA 5 you leave one city and drive through empty country. In Leonida you leave one city and arrive at another kind of place with people in it, then cross water to reach a third.
Why the two multiples do not line up
Nelson gave two comparisons in the same breath: twice GTA 5's map, three times Red Dead Redemption 2's. Community measurements put those two older worlds almost level, GTA 5 at 75.84 km² and Red Dead 2 at roughly 75 km². Nothing can be twice one and three times the other if the two are the same size.
The two multiples were taken against different rulers. The reading that fits is land against total: Red Dead 2's playable land is a smaller number than GTA 5's land plus its 27.69 km² of ocean, and three times the first sits close to twice the second, somewhere in the 150 to 225 km² band. Which end of that band Leonida actually occupies depends on how much of it turns out to be water, and the Keys suggest that share is not small.
This is the whole reason two careful measurements of one map can differ by a third. Ocean in or out, unreachable border terrain in or out, interiors in or out. Any comparison worth reading applies one boundary rule to both maps and says which rule it used.
What eleven times bigger means for the city
The figure that will change how the game plays is the city one. Vice City at twice the size of Los Santos is a straightforward area statement. Vice City with its suburbs at eleven times Los Santos and its surroundings is a statement about built-up ground, as the reporting around Nelson's comments reads it, and Rockstar has not defined the boundary it used.
If that holds, the difference a player feels is density rather than distance. GTA 5's land is mostly Blaine County scrub with a city in one corner; Leonida would put buildings across ground that GTA 5 filled with desert. The Extended Look supports the reading. In 26 minutes captured on PS5 it moves through a Vice City neighbourhood called Bayside during a police chase, a rooftop bar named Effluvia used as a meeting spot, and the headquarters of a satirical television network, Megamundo, with interiors walked into rather than loaded from a menu.
There is one comparison the official material does not support at all. Rockstar has said nothing about San Andreas or Los Santos appearing in Grand Theft Auto VI, and the game is set in Leonida.
Perguntas frequentes
Is the GTA 6 map bigger than the GTA 5 map?
Yes, twice the size. Rob Nelson, head of development at Rockstar North, said so on 27 August 2026. Against the community measurement of GTA 5 at 75.84 km², that puts Leonida near 150 km².
How much bigger is Vice City than Los Santos?
Twice the size on its own, and eleven times the size once suburbs are counted against Los Santos and its surrounding areas. Rockstar has not said which boundary the eleven-times figure uses; reporting reads it as built-up ground rather than total map area.
Does the GTA 6 map include Los Santos or San Andreas?
No such statement exists. Grand Theft Auto VI is set in the state of Leonida, and the six regions Rockstar has named are all inside it. Claims that San Andreas is included are rumour.
How big is the GTA 5 map in square kilometres?
About 75.84 km², or 29 square miles, split into 48.15 km² of land and 27.69 km² of water. That is a player measurement rather than a Rockstar figure, and it covers the 2013 map before Cayo Perico was added to GTA Online in December 2020.
Is GTA 6 bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2?
Three times bigger, by Rob Nelson's account. Red Dead Redemption 2 measures roughly 75 km² by community count, which would put Leonida at about 225 km², higher than the figure the GTA 5 comparison gives.