Is GTA RP ever going to become bigger than GTA Online itself?

GTA RP has become one of the most popular mods in recent times, so much so that many people prefer it over GTA Online.

GTA Online is an online version of Grand Theft Auto in which players can do heists, stunts, races and manage businesses with friends. RP takes GTA Online one step further by adding role-playing elements like character backstory, continuity, etc.

This form of role-playing appealed to a lot of people and GTA RP quickly became huge on Twitch. Massive streamers like xQc, Sykkuno and Summit1g created ridiculous characters on the NoPixel server and started streaming RP, furthuring its popularity.

WIll GTA RP surpass GTA Online in popularity?

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Well, on PC it already has. FiveM, the mod used to host RP servers, has more concurrent players than GTA Online does on Steam, which is PC's biggest marketplace for games.

It is a whole different story on consoles because RP is a mod for GTA 5 which can only be accessed on PC. So there is no way to access RP on PS4 and Xbox One.

Consoles make up the majority of GTA Online's playerbase with PS4 and Xbox One players having at least one million concurrent players. So unless RP makes it to consoles somehow there is no chance it will be bigger than Online.

Even if GTA RP makes it to consoles somehow, it would have to be released by Rockstar and seeing Rockstar's record of handling online content, GTA RP on consoles will most likely be a very restrictive version of GTA RP on PC with micro-transactions and a defined set of rules.

A huge appeal of RP on PC is that the rules are decided by the players, and there are no restrictions like level gating or the need to buy sharkcards to do things players want to do.

Online is also more accessible than RP in many ways. Casual players aren't that into role-play and don't want to learn how to role-play just to play GTA RP. So casual players will always choose Online over RP.

It seems unlikely that GTA RP will ever be bigger than GTA Online because of all the aspects mentioned above, but only time will tell.