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GTA 6's Leonida is nearly as big as GTA IV, GTA V and RDR2's maps combined, Rockstar tells Edge

By Ron Carter Jr. · October 29, 2026

Official GTA VI image of a white Grotti Cheetah parked outside a curved Vice City tower at sunset
Image: Rockstar Games

Leonida is huge. In Edge magazine’s GTA 6 cover feature, published on GamesRadar+ ahead of the November issue going on sale October 29, Rockstar says the total landmass of Leonida, including Vice City and the surrounding areas, is nearly as large as the playable maps of GTA IV, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined. Edge describes the map as roughly twice the size of GTA V’s. The figure spread widely after DiscussingFilm posted it on X, but the Edge feature is where it comes from. Spoiler-free below: no story, characters’ arcs or missions, just the world and systems.

About 600,000 animations for the crowd (reported by Edge). Edge reports that Rockstar art-directed every NPC in Leonida, creating around 600,000 animations, with a Los Angeles-based team of writers, directors and producers dedicated to making pedestrians feel individual. NPCs get personality traits that shape how they react to you, based on things like temperament, where they are and what they’ve seen.

Here’s what else Rockstar’s developers told Edge about how the world works:

  • More interiors. Co-studio head Aaron Garbut says the game has “an order of magnitude more interiors” than its predecessors.
  • Weather that moves. Clouds move on their own, shaped by wind, humidity, fog, time of day and season. You can see storms forming in the distance, roads get wet and dry out, wind affects waves and boats, and flying through a storm can buffet an aircraft and even lightly damage it, according to Edge.
  • A slower clock and narrower roads. The day-night cycle has been extended substantially, and roads are narrower than GTA V’s to feel “a more believable size,” says Rockstar North’s Rob Nelson.
  • Police work off a description. Edge reports a “heat” system that tracks what police know about you, like your description, clothing, weapon, whether you had a partner and whether CCTV caught you. Changing clothes, splitting up or dropping the weapon makes you harder to match.
  • Stealing cars is riskier. Some drivers flee, some fight back, newer cars can carry trackers, and every vehicle has a fuel gauge and an engine health readout, per Edge.
  • Getting around. A phone app called Scooter Bros delivers one of your cars for a small fee, and the game has working bus and train systems, Edge reports.

What’s confirmed and what’s reported. The landmass comparison is Rockstar’s own claim to Edge, and the quotes above come from Rockstar developers. The 600,000-animation count and the system details are Edge’s reporting from a hands-off demo of the current build, and Rockstar hasn’t published them itself. The release date is official: Take-Two’s pre-order announcement confirms November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with pre-loading for digital pre-orders opening November 12.

PPR take: Map size is a blunt number, and even Edge says so. The part that stands out is how much of this is about the world reacting to you, from witnesses to weather. Three weeks to go.

Sources