How long is GTA 6? About 80 hours, according to one Rockstar dev's playthrough
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Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson spoke to the New York Times about the making of GTA 6 . One key detail is casually slipped into the report: Nelson played through GTA 6 in February 2026, and it took him 80 hours.
Nelson's run evidently covered the main story and "some optional goals with narrative ramifications," the New York Times explains. Focusing more on side content would surely grow that playtime considerably, with Rockstar promising greater depth and detail than any of its previous games.
Staggeringly, Rockstar says GTA 6's map is three times larger than Red Dead Redemption 2, already regarded as one of the most ambitious open-world games of all time.
"I hope that there will be people that want to get up, have a cup of coffee, shower, get dressed, go out for a little exercise," Nelson says, digging into the activities and routines available to protagonists Jason and Lucia.
"Here I am eating an apple, opening the fridge and drinking a smoothie," he says. "So this will increase my health temporarily for a while, allowing people to sort of role-play.
If you do get invested in this personalization and micro behaviors, GTA 6 may well last you hundreds of hours at base, before even getting into post-launch updates and online content. We can only speculate on the true depth of the game, but the GTA 6 extended look live reveal and the ensuing information salvo like NPC interactions also going considerably further than Red Dead Redemption 2 points to a considerably richer game.
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Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
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