GTA 6: how much, release date, pre-orders and everything you need to know

To put it simply, the GTA franchise is one of the largest and most profitable entertainment properties in history.

GTA 5 has sold nearly 230 million copies, making it one of the best-selling games of all time – generating billions of dollars in revenue for Rockstar.

A sandbox gameplay where players can explore vast open worlds with maximum freedom – Sometimes controversial – has seen it constantly hailed as the ultimate expression of what interactive media can do.

Freelance video games journalist Vic Hood said that each entry in the series “continues to push the boundaries of technical and gameplay”, helping to make GTA Online “a pioneer of the live service model as we know it”.

The games are also “very culturally relevant,” she added.

“Rockstar has always had a finger on the pulse of music, entertainment, community, politics, celebrity and online cultural trends, and has not hesitated to infuse these elements into the GTA games,” she said.

The anticipation of how the sixth game could even top the previous game’s massive heights meant that any recent news, no matter how small, received plenty of hype and excitement.

Both GTA 6’s previous gameplay trailers currently have a total of 447 million views.