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If you want the full Grand Theft Auto experience, play Grand Theft Auto V for its three-character story and GTA Online for a continuing shared world. If you have already finished Los Santos, choose by what you want next: Red Dead Redemption 2 for another richly simulated Rockstar world, Watch Dogs 2 for a modern city with online co-op, or Cyberpunk 2077 for a dense, single-player city RPG. For a non-Rockstar crime sandbox, Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is a strong all-round choice.
Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Rockstar has not announced a PC version or release date. Until then, these games offer different parts of the GTA appeal—but no rival is a like-for-like replacement for GTA Online.
At a glance
| Name | Best for | Key spec | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto V + GTA Online | The complete GTA loop | Three-protagonist story; persistent online mode | Nov 2026 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | A detailed Rockstar world | 1899 Western; Red Dead Online | Nov 2026 |
| Watch Dogs 2 | Modern city and co-op | San Francisco Bay Area; seamless online co-op | Nov 2026 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | A dense solo city RPG | Night City; first-person play and character builds | Nov 2026 |
| Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition | Single-player crime action | Hong Kong; melee-focused combat | Nov 2026 |
| Saints Row: The Third Remastered / Saints Row IV | Comedy and co-op chaos | Online co-op; superpowers in Saints Row IV | Nov 2026 |
| Mafia: Definitive Edition / Mafia: The Old Country | A cinematic crime story | Story-first; limited free-roam sandbox | Nov 2026 |
| Yakuza 0 | Crime drama and brawler combat | Compact Japanese districts; authored side stories | Nov 2026 |
| Just Cause 3 / Just Cause 4 | Vehicle and physics-driven mayhem | Grappling-hook action; not a crime drama | Nov 2026 |
What is the closest game to GTA?
Grand Theft Auto V is the closest overall match because it is GTA: a substantial single-player campaign and access to GTA Online in one package. For something outside the series, the right match depends on whether you value Rockstar-style world detail, a contemporary American city, crime-story missions, or the freedom to make spectacular trouble.
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Is GTA V still worth playing while waiting for GTA 6?
Yes, especially if you want both a campaign and online play. GTA V follows three protagonists through heists and satirical Los Santos, while GTA Online provides a separate persistent multiplayer experience that continues to receive updates.
Take-Two Interactive’s 10-Q, filed August 7, 2026, says GTA V—including access to GTA Online—has sold in more than 230 million units worldwide. The same filing says the Grand Theft Auto series has sold in over 470 million units worldwide. Those are Take-Two’s reported sold-in figures, not a count of active players.
The online mode was still receiving new content in 2026: Take-Two listed the Kortz Center Heist Summer Update as shipped on July 14 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. That update is concrete evidence of continued support; it does not establish a current player count. Take-Two’s Steam listing for the PC version describes support for 30 players and two spectators, while Steam identifies the game as offering single-player, online PvP, and online co-op.
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Choose GTA V if you have not played its story or want a ready-made online world. If you have already spent years in Los Santos, the alternatives below are more useful as changes of setting, tone, or play style than as direct replacements.
Should you play Red Dead Redemption 2 if you want more Rockstar?
Yes, if the world and character work matter more to you than modern cars and a fast pace. Red Dead Redemption 2 follows Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang in 1899, with a slower, denser simulation than GTA’s modern city adventures.
The key adjustment is the fantasy: travel is mostly by horse, and the story is a Western rather than a contemporary crime caper. The game gives you room to explore and encounter a world with its own rhythms, but it is not GTA with a different map. Take-Two reported more than 85 million units sold in for Red Dead Redemption 2 in its August 2026 10-Q.
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Red Dead Online extends the setting into multiplayer, so it is the Rockstar-made option to consider if you want to roam with other players. However, no current source establishes its 2026 update cadence or population. Treat its existence as a reason to look at it—not as evidence that it currently offers the same level of live support or activity as GTA Online.
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Pick Watch Dogs 2 for co-op and systemic missions; pick Cyberpunk 2077 for a solo, role-playing-focused city. Both offer an urban setting, but their activities and multiplayer options are quite different.
Watch Dogs 2: a contemporary city with online co-op
Watch Dogs 2 takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area, where hacker Marcus Holloway works with DedSec against the city’s ctOS 2.0 surveillance system. Ubisoft describes Marcus as a young hacker living in the birthplace of the tech revolution. That premise makes hacking—not simply driving and shooting—the game’s defining tool for creating trouble and handling missions.
It is the best fit here if you want a modern American city, vehicles, police, open missions, satire, and the option to play online with a friend. Its online play is described as seamless co-op, making it a more relevant GTA alternative for shared sessions than a single-player city game. It is still not a persistent online world on GTA Online’s scale, and its hacker fantasy is distinct from GTA’s criminal ensemble.
Cyberpunk 2077: a solo RPG built around Night City
Cyberpunk 2077 makes Night City the main attraction: a dense urban setting for driving, gigs, crime, and first-person role-playing. Character builds affect how you approach the game, so it suits players who want to shape a protagonist and pursue authored missions as well as roam the city.
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What is the best non-Rockstar crime sandbox?
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is the strongest all-round single-player choice if you want crime action in a distinctive city. Its Hong Kong setting, undercover-police premise, and melee combat give it a clear identity rather than making it a GTA imitation.
You play Wei Shen, an undercover officer embedded in the Sun On Yee. The game is built around a crime story and hand-to-hand combat as much as driving and exploration. Its Definitive Edition is a single-player game, so do not choose it for online sessions. It suits someone who wants a compact, authored crime adventure with a different combat rhythm; it is less suitable for someone seeking a large ongoing sandbox.
Should you choose Saints Row for a GTA-like sandbox?
Choose Saints Row: The Third Remastered or Saints Row IV if you want outrageous comedy and co-op, not grounded crime drama. They lean into escalating absurdity and deliberately exaggerated action.
Saints Row: The Third Remastered is the better starting point if you want a more conventional open-world crime setup pushed into farce. Saints Row IV turns the dial further with superpowers. Both are listed as offering online co-op, so they can provide a chaotic shared session, although neither is a persistent service comparable to GTA Online.
Do not assume the 2022 Saints Row reboot is the series’ best entry point. Published reviews describe its reception as disappointing, and Volition was shut down by Embracer on August 31, 2023; the franchise’s future is uncertain. The older games remain the clearer recommendation for players specifically looking for the series’ established comedy-sandbox strengths.
Are the Mafia games open-world alternatives to GTA?
They are alternatives for crime stories, not for unrestricted sandbox play. Mafia: Definitive Edition and Mafia: The Old Country emphasize cinematic narratives and have less freedom for unscripted roaming than GTA.
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Mafia: Definitive Edition is set in 1930s Lost Heaven and retells a story about organized crime. Mafia: The Old Country, released August 8, 2025, moves to 1900s Sicily and follows Enzo Favara. It is described as a linear, cinematic Unreal Engine 5 game. Neither offers co-op. Pick one if you most enjoy GTA’s missions, characters, and criminal plot; look elsewhere if the main draw is making your own activities in a city for dozens of hours.
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For the closest thing to a continuing online playground, stay with GTA Online. Outside that mode, Watch Dogs 2 and the recommended Saints Row games offer co-op, while Red Dead Online is the choice for a Rockstar Western setting. Several of the best city and crime-story alternatives are solo only.
| Game | What its online play offers | Choose it for |
|---|---|---|
| GTA V / GTA Online | Persistent online mode; Steam’s PC listing specifies 30 players and two spectators | The full GTA campaign-plus-online combination |
| Watch Dogs 2 | Seamless online co-op | Modern city missions with a friend |
| Saints Row: The Third Remastered / Saints Row IV | Online co-op | Comedy and high-chaos action |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 / Red Dead Online | Online mode in the Western setting | Exploration in another Rockstar world |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | No co-op | Solo role-playing in Night City |
| Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition | No co-op | Solo Hong Kong crime action |
| Mafia: Definitive Edition / Mafia: The Old Country | No co-op | Cinematic crime stories |
| Just Cause 4 | No co-op | Solo physics-driven destruction |
| Yakuza / Like a Dragon games | No co-op | Compact districts and crime drama |
Online labels do not mean the same thing across these games. Co-op lets you share some play with another person; it does not automatically mean a persistent world, a large player population, or the volume of ongoing content found in GTA Online. No current source supports a current monthly-active-user figure for GTA Online, so a precise population comparison would be misleading.
What other games are worth considering?
These are useful side paths if your favorite part of GTA is narrower than its full mix of story, city, vehicles, and open-ended play:
- Watch Dogs: Legion: a play-as-anyone take on London with online co-op. Choose it if the changing character roster interests you more than the San Francisco setting and hacking focus of Watch Dogs 2.
- L.A. Noire: a Rockstar-published detective game, not a conventional GTA sandbox. Its investigative structure is a better fit if you want period crime cases and interrogation.
- Max Payne 3: Rockstar gunplay and a crime story, but not an open-world GTA substitute.
- The Precinct: a police-centered perspective on crime rather than a criminal power fantasy.
- Schedule I: a criminal-business simulation that may appeal if the business-building side of GTA Online is what you want to echo.
- Just Cause 3 or 4: choose these for grappling-hook stunts, vehicles, and physics-driven destruction, not for a grounded crime narrative. Just Cause 4 is single-player.
- Yakuza 0: a good entry if you want Japanese crime drama, brawler combat, and densely packed side activities. The series is not uniformly a GTA-style driving-and-gunplay sandbox: from Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020), combat is turn-based.
- LEGO City Undercover: a family-friendlier city sandbox if you want a lighter alternative for younger players.
How should you choose between these GTA alternatives?
Start with the part of GTA you want to preserve. That avoids the common mismatch of buying a praised open-world game that has the wrong tone, pace, or multiplayer format for you.
- You want the real GTA story and a place to keep playing online: choose GTA V plus GTA Online.
- You want Rockstar’s world-building but not another modern city: choose Red Dead Redemption 2, and expect a slower Western adventure.
- You want a contemporary American city and co-op: choose Watch Dogs 2.
- You want a dense city for solo exploration and builds: choose Cyberpunk 2077, ideally the Ultimate Edition if you want Phantom Liberty included.
- You want a self-contained crime story with melee combat: choose Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition.
- You want co-op that is silly rather than realistic: choose Saints Row: The Third Remastered or Saints Row IV.
- You mainly want cinematic crime missions: choose a Mafia game, knowing its sandbox freedom is limited.
- You want destruction above all else: choose Just Cause, not a game marketed around crime-story similarity.
What is the selection criteria?
The choices above are organized around the comparison that matters to a GTA player: setting, freedom versus authored story, single-player versus co-op or persistent online, tone, and whether a game shares Rockstar’s studio lineage. GTA V and GTA Online lead because they directly answer both halves of the request. The other recommendations are distinguished by the specific GTA-like element they serve rather than being treated as identical clones.
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The comparison also separates co-op from a persistent online service. A game can be a good choice for playing with a friend without offering a living shared world, and a strong solo city game can still be the wrong choice for someone seeking an online alternative. Release and support details are stated only where a named published source establishes them. Take-Two’s 2026 figures are identified as its own sold-in reporting; no unsupported player-count or performance comparisons are used.
What should you know about GTA 6 before buying another game?
Rockstar’s official site and Take-Two’s August 2026 filing give the date as November 19, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The filing confirms that pre-orders began in June 2026. Rockstar has not announced a PC version or PC date, so PC players should not treat a third-party claim of a confirmed launch window as official.
Empire reported in February 2026 that Take-Two said GTA VI was not planned as digital-only, so a physical release is expected. That is not the same as a guarantee of specific editions or availability in every region. A US store check reported a $79.99 standard listing in October 2026, but prices and editions can vary by country and retailer; that figure is not a universal price. If you want something to play now, choose based on the kind of experience you want rather than waiting for an unannounced PC date.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I play GTA V story mode without going online?
Yes. The Steam product listing identifies Grand Theft Auto V as a single-player game as well as offering online modes. The campaign and GTA Online are distinct ways to play, so you can focus on the story without treating multiplayer as a requirement.
Does GTA V on PC support cross-play with consoles?
The PC and console versions have online features, but no current official source establishes cross-platform play between them. Check the current platform-specific multiplayer information before buying if playing together across PC and console is essential.
Is FiveM an official GTA Online mode?
No. FiveM is a PC mod scene, not a licensed official GTA Online product. It should not be treated as the same thing as Rockstar’s supported online mode.
Will GTA 6 have a physical disc release?
A physical release is expected: Empire reported that Take-Two said in February 2026 that the game was not planned as digital-only. Rockstar’s official date and platform announcement does not by itself confirm specific physical editions or regional stock.
