Why GTA 4 is not as popular as GTA San Andreas

GTA 4 (2008) and GTA San Andreas (2004) were two landmark titles from Rockstar Games that broke barriers. While the 2004 title is considered to be the most ambitious project in the 3D universe, the 2008 title laid the foundation for the HD Universe. However, when it comes to overall popularity, Grand Theft Auto 4 did not come close to the influence San Andreas enjoys.

This article briefly explains why Rockstar Games’ GTA 4 is not as popular as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

Note: Some parts of this article are subjective and only reflect the writer’s opinions.

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Factors that kept GTA 4 from becoming as popular as GTA San Andreas

The first and most notable factor is that Rockstar Games significantly limited what players can do in GTA 4 compared to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Although GTA 4's open world is bigger and more detailed, it has fewer side activities when compared to the 2004 title.

These are some of the activities that GTA players can enjoy in San Andreas but not in Grand Theft Auto 4:

• Attend various schools such as Driving School, Bike School, Boat School, and Pilot School.
• Play basketball
• Change the character’s physique in gyms
• Own properties and businesses
• Play Firefighter and Paramedic missions

These extra activities made GTA San Andreas wildly popular among fans.

The in-game physics and driving mechanics of GTA 4 were also hit-or-miss among fans. While some praised Rockstar for incorporating realistic physics, others criticized the studio for making driving considerably difficult.

Readers should note that driving a vehicle in the 2008 title is very similar to real life where you can easily lose control if you move or corner too fast. Some players did not like the change since they were accustomed to the arcade-style driving of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and its predecessors.

The PC version of GTA 4 was also a mess, which is one of the main reasons why the game fell behind San Andreas. Once a console generation passes, the PC community keeps the games alive by developing mods and other gameplay elements.

There is a huge collection of GTA San Andreas PC mods on the internet. However, since the 2008 title was not properly optimized for PC, it did not find a lot of popularity on the platform. As a result, there are fewer mods for it.

In short, the following factors are the reasons why GTA 4 is not as popular as GTA San Andreas:

• Limited activities compared to San Andreas.
• Too much realistic physics.
• Rockstar Games did not optimize the PC version well.

Nonetheless, Grand Theft Auto 4 is still a great game to play before the release of GTA 6.