With GTA VI approaching, it's worth looking back at how Grand Theft Auto became one of the biggest entertainment franchises ever made — not just a video game series, but a genuine pop-culture institution nearly three decades in the making.
1997–1999: The top-down beginning
The original Grand Theft Auto released in 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows, developed by DMA Design. Played from a top-down view, it introduced the open-world crime sandbox formula across three cities that would become series fixtures: Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City. A 1999 London-set expansion followed the same year as GTA2.
2001–2004: The 3D era that changed everything
Grand Theft Auto III (October 2001) is arguably the single most important entry in the series' history — it threw out the top-down perspective for a full 3D open world, became the best-selling game in the US for 2001, and set the template nearly every open-world game since has followed in some way.
Vice City followed just a year later (October 2002), trading Liberty City's grit for 1980s Miami excess, complete with a fully voiced protagonist in Tommy Vercetti (voiced by Ray Liotta). San Andreas (2004) expanded the format further with three cities in one game and a huge open state to explore.
2008: GTA IV and the HD era
After several handheld spin-offs, Grand Theft Auto IV (April 2008) rebuilt the series around a new, more grounded Liberty City and a darker story following Niko Bellic, an immigrant pulled into organized crime. It marked a significant technical and tonal leap for the series.
2013: GTA V and the online era
Grand Theft Auto V (September 2013) introduced three playable protagonists — Michael, Franklin, and Trevor — across the largest open world the series had built to that point. Its online component, GTA Online, launched alongside it and has been continuously updated for over a decade, turning a single game release into an ongoing platform that's still generating new content today, thirteen years later.
2026: GTA VI
Which brings us to now. GTA VI returns to Vice City by way of the fictional state of Leonida, introduces the series' first female protagonist in Lucia, and arrives after the longest gap between mainline entries in the franchise's history.
Why it matters for collectors
Few gaming franchises carry the kind of physical collectibility that GTA does — original-run cases, strategy guides, and promotional material from the 3D era in particular have become genuinely sought-after among retro collectors. If you're holding onto original GTA III, Vice City, or San Andreas cases, they're worth protecting properly.
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Historical details sourced from Rockstar Games' official release history and retrospective coverage from Charlie INTEL and Fierce PC.