In a blog post, Rockstar Games teased that an "exciting" new GTA Online update will be released this summer, sparking speculation about what it could involve given GTA 6 is set to launch in November.
Historically, Rockstar releases two megaton GTA Online updates every year: one in the summer, one in December. With GTA 6 due out on November 19, 2026, could the summer update mark a turning point for GTA Online?
"After 13 years and almost 50 content updates, the end is almost here. Hopefully, they send this game off with a bang," said one fan. "They don't specify that it'll be the last one, but are we ready to say goodbye to Los Santos after 13 years?" asked another.
Rockstar has given fans very little to go on. "There’s also plenty more to look forward to in GTA Online, including a variety of special events and celebrations, along with an exciting new update this summer," the developer's blog post concludes. But fans are of course speculating about what it could mean. Does Rockstar plan to launch a new iteration of GTA Online alongside GTA 6, or will it come some time later? What happens to the current GTA Online when the new GTA Online comes out?
There is no suggestion here that Rockstar will all of a sudden shut the GTA Online servers down whenever GTA Online 2, or whatever it's called, comes out. And it's worth noting that GTA 6 launches in November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only. There's no GTA 6 day one on PC, where GTA Online remains hugely popular.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick previously teased that GTA Online could continue after GTA 6 (and given how much money it continues to make, that would make a lot of financial sense), but it remains to be seen how that would work. Perhaps GTA Online will follow in the footsteps of Red Dead Online, which gets small, bite-sized updates that don't radically change the game's content.
"I'm going to speak theoretically only because I'm not going to talk about a particular project when an announcement hasn't been made,” Zelnick told IGN last year when quizzed on what happens to GTA Online when GTA 6 comes out. “But generally speaking, we support our properties when the consumers are involved with those titles. As an example, we launched NBA 2K Online in China, I think originally in 2012 if I'm not mistaken. And then we launched NBA 2K Online 2 in China in 2017. We did not sunset Online 1. They both are still in the market and they serve consumers and they're alive and we have this massive audience. So we've shown a willingness to support legacy titles when a community wants to be engaged with them.”
It won't be long until we start getting some concrete answers. GTA 6's big marketing push is set for this summer, and fans are going to extreme lengths to predict the GTA 6 Trailer 3 release date. Similarly, we'll probably hear more about the next GTA Online update in greater detail within the next month or two, as the summer updates tend to release in June or July.
Could Rockstar use GTA Online to tease GTA 6? Rockstar used GTA Online to market Red Dead Redemption 2 prior to its release. The developer added an in-game treasure hunt, which gave players access to an old-school revolver in GTA Online once completed. It wouldn't be surprising if we see some in-game events to build up to GTA 6 as a result.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
