All 7 Mainline GTA Games, Ranked

Today, Grand Theft Auto is undoubtedly the biggest game series out there. Most games come out and become irrelevant within a year or two. But each new GTA entry becomes a lasting part of gaming culture. Every generation of gamers has a GTA that defined their childhood or teenage years. For some, it was Vice City. For others, it was San Andreas. GTA V has now launched across three console generations and still ranks among the best-selling games year after year! Now, with GTA VI set to release on November 19, 2026, let’s revisit and rank the mainline GTA games before we get a chance to experience Lucia and Jason’s story.

7

‘Grand Theft Auto’ (1997)

Image via Rockstar Games

The original Grand Theft Auto feels almost unrecognizable today. Instead of the now-famous third-person perspective, players looked down from above as they stole cars and completed jobs for crime syndicates. But the core GTA formula was already there. You could ignore missions entirely, steal almost any vehicle you saw, run over pedestrians, and try to outrun the cops.

It also introduced one of the series’ most beloved traditions: cheats. Players could enter codes like BSTARD to unlock every city with 99 lives and infinite ammo, or HANGTHEDJ for complete invincibility. The game was also immensely controversial at the time. Critics and politicians condemned it as a “murder simulator” because players took on the role of criminals and were rewarded for committing crimes. That controversy only fueled its popularity and helped put the series on the map.

6

‘Grand Theft Auto II’ (1999)

Image via Rockstar Games

GTA II took everything that made the original so much fun and made it even better. It still used the top-down camera, but it added a cyberpunk, futuristic setting and one of the series’ most interesting ideas: multiple criminal factions. Completing jobs for one gang made another gang hate you, and this forced players to actually think about who they wanted to work for instead of just grinding missions in a straight line.

The world also felt much more alive. NPCs reacted better, missions became more varied, and police chases grew far more intense than anything in the first game. And, for the first and only time in the series, GTA II also included an eight-minute-long live-action intro cutscene, setting up the more cinematic direction the series would fully commit to later on.

5

‘Grand Theft Auto III’ (2001)

Image via Rockstar Games

This was the game that took the open-world car-stealing chaos of the first two entries and moved everything into a fully realized 3D city, and it became the blueprint every future GTA game would be built on. There were in-car radio stations to flip through. There were mission cutscenes riffing on The Sopranos and Goodfellas. The game also introduced multiple explorable map islands, which unlocked progressively as players advanced through the story.

There had been driving games before. There had been shooting games and open-world 3D games too. But combining all of that into one package was completely unheard of. And there was so much freedom! You could run someone over, wait for the ambulance to show up, spray it with an Uzi, and watch it crash and trigger a huge chain explosion. It was absolutely mind-blowing at the time.

4

‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’ (2002)

Image via Rockstar Games

Vice City came out just one year after GTA III, but the improvements were massive, and it became the defining game of its generation. Tommy Vercetti was the series’ first fully voiced protagonist, and the game fully embraced the colorful excess of the 80s. You could finally change clothes. Helicopters and motorcycles were added to the franchise, scattered across a neon-lit Miami map that felt worlds apart from the grim Liberty City before it.

The Scarface-style missions were insanely fun. Nightclubs showed up in the series for the first time, and you could start purchasing businesses that generated passive income, which made you feel like you were actually building a criminal empire. Add in a phenomenal soundtrack and the best weapons the series had offered yet, from the katana to the flamethrower to the minigun and rocket launcher, and it’s no surprise Vice City became the fastest-selling video game of 2002.

3

‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ (2008)

Image via Rockstar Games

GTA IV told a much darker, more grounded story following immigrant Niko Bellic as he chased the American Dream through Liberty City. The game introduced a new physics engine that made everything feel more realistic. Cars felt heavier, shootouts became more tactical, and NPC reactions were years ahead of anything else on the market at the time.

The story was Oscar-worthy and is still widely considered one of Rockstar’s strongest. It introduced the in-game smartphone that would become an even bigger part of the sequel, and players could visit internet cafes to browse websites, read emails, and trigger hidden side missions. The game also broke multiple sales records, including fastest-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product within 24 hours of release.

2

‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ (2004)

Image via Rockstar Games

As big as GTA V is, plenty of fans still hold San Andreas as Rockstar’s single greatest achievement. Instead of one city, Rockstar built an entire state, featuring Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas, deserts, forests, and mountains. And for the first time, interactive fully nude strip clubs! You could date girlfriends, spend money across dozens of new shops, and dive into a stack of minigames that no previous GTA game had come close to offering.

San Andreas also added a full RPG progression system to the series for the first time. CJ could gain muscle at the gym, get overweight from eating too much fast food, improve his driving skills, boost his stamina, learn new fighting styles, and customize nearly every part of his appearance. Those progression systems have been sorely missed ever since, so much so that Rockstar may finally be bringing one of them back. It’s heavily rumored that the gym system will finally be making a return in GTA VI.

1

‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (2013)

Image via Rockstar Games

To no one’s surprise, topping the list is GTA V. For the very first time, Rockstar introduced three playable protagonists, letting players instantly switch between Michael, Franklin, and what is arguably the greatest GTA character ever created, Trevor. And it delivered a Heat-style crime saga with the most cinematic missions the series had ever attempted.

Los Santos became Rockstar’s most detailed open world yet. You could hike mountains, go scuba diving, trade stocks, pull off elaborate heists, rob stores at gunpoint, play golf, do yoga, and mod every single part of your car. The driving felt the best it ever had, the graphics still hold up better than most modern AAA games over a decade later, and GTA Online kept the game relevant well beyond its expected shelf life. Games like Watch Dogs 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Mafia have all come and gone since, but GTA V still remains the gold standard for an urban open world, and it’s still the second best-selling video game of all time, trailing only Minecraft.