Many GTA Online players are still on PS4, leaving GTA 6's launch in a tricky situation: Report

While Rockstar Games is discreetly preparing to release GTA 6 in 2025, many GTA Online players are yet to make their shift to the current generation of consoles, according to a report by Ampere Games - Analytics. Although Rockstar Games has added many features to the Grand Theft Auto 5: Expanded and Enhanced version to lure players, most still prefer the PlayStation 4 to play the decade-old game.

This can make GTA 6’s release tricky for Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive. Ampere Games also mentioned some figures for GTA Online’s monthly players and stated that Rockstar would have to take new measures to balance the player base of both games.

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Analysts say Rockstar Games will face challenges while shifting from GTA Online to GTA 6

According to Ampere Games’ report, GTA Online still gets around 20 million players monthly. The count touched around 30 million in December 2023 and 25 million in June 2024 due to GTA 6’s trailer reveal and the Bottom Dollar Bounties DLC update.

The report also stated that out of the 20 million average monthly players, a majority of them are from PlayStation 4.

“PS4 remains the most active platform by some distance, with millions also playing on Xbox One and Steam.”

This is a notable factor as Rockstar Games plans to release Grand Theft Auto 6 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S only. While the studio may release the game on PC later, there is little chance that a GTA 6 PS4 version will be released.

Ampere Games stated that the release of the upcoming game would split the player base, but Rockstar would have to continue the current multiplayer game for some more years:

“Ampere expects Rockstar to continue operating GTA Online for the foreseeable future, but this will mean maintaining multiple communities as the user base is split following the launch of GTA VI.”

This is a good suggestion considering Rockstar is not always lucky with multiplayer games. While Grand Theft Auto 5 Online skyrocketed, Grand Theft Auto 4 Online and Red Dead Online were not successful. Therefore, the studio should be careful while launching the GTA 6 online multiplayer in the future.

Ampere Games elaborated on why Rockstar Games should run the current multiplayer and GTA 6 multiplayer simultaneously. It stated:

“Running these experiences in parallel will be a resource-heavy and complex challenge, but the original GTA Online has the advantage of acting as a key funnel for gamers to transition across to the new platform so will be an important user acquisition channel.”

While many fans don’t want to play Grand Theft Auto 5 Online for another 10 years, Rockstar should not shut it down at least until the Grand Theft Auto 6 PC version is released.