No list of the most anticipated games of 2025 would be complete without Grand Theft Auto 6. Soon, we hope, the memes that we got "X thing" before GTA 6 will be a thing of the past. Although there are rumors the title could slip into 2026. They haven't been confirmed, so until I hear differently I'm calling this of 2025's most anticipated games.
Because of how rabidly popular this franchise is, it topped all these lists even before any official announcement. And there was no reason for Take-Two Interactive to rush, considering how much money the 2013 release is still making for them. It has made nearly $9 billion, fueled in no small part by the success of GTA Online.
But in September 2022, a heist worthy of a Rockstar protagonist happened. A leaker posted nearly an hour of in-game footage from the upcoming title, with the developer confirming the clips were real. On one hand, you never want to have a security breach. You certainly don't want assets from your most valuable game out there. But if anybody was wondering if GTA 6 could keep the hype going, all the publicity confirmed how thirsty players were for news. Some conspiracy theorists even accused Rockstar of leaking footage themselves or allowing someone else to.
The leak was our first confirmation that at least one of the game 's playable characters is a woman. Predictably, all the worst people weighed in on this as some woke betrayal of GTA's core values. Like all gatekeeping of our hobby, this hate is ridiculous.
Some of the most successful gangsters of all time have been women. Sofia Vergara recently captivated millions of Netflix viewers as Griselda Blanco, a drug lord often called the "Godmother of Cocaine."
The strategy game Empire of Sin includes several female gangsters such as Stephanie St. Clair, who was an unusual combination of criminal and community activist. While running her enterprises, she also stopped to call out police corruption and brutality. So GTA isn't doing this just to appease critics, it's calling on the actual history of America's most colorful criminals.
Lucia and her boyfriend, whose name is still unconfirmed by Rockstar, appear to be knee deep in the criminal lifestyle together. They'll be tearing a swath of destruction through Vice City, the series' stand-in for Miami.
Batman writers often refer to Gotham City as its own character, and that's always felt true of GTA's settings as well. Nobody puts players into a specific location or era as well as Rockstar Games, be it the Old West or cocaine-fueled 80s Miami.
It's wild how much we want this game in spite of how little we know about it. And even much of what we know, we weren't supposed to learn yet. It's a testament to the job Rockstar has done with this series. We'll soak up any knowledge they want to grace us with. We'll play it when they allow us to, and we'll probably pay $100 to do so.