Best 12 Games Like GTA 5 — 2026 Edition

GTA 6 is finally out (October 2026), but if you're between sessions or it's not your style, here are the 12 best games like GTA 5 to play right now.

The closest games to GTA 5 are Grand Theft Auto VI, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Saints Row (2022). Each delivers GTA's open-world freedom with its own twist — Western, sci-fi, or pure satire.

Rockstar's long-awaited sequel launched October 2026. Vice City reborn, dual protagonists, and the most detailed map ever built. The obvious answer.

Rockstar's other masterpiece. Slower, more cinematic, but the open world is unmatched. If GTA's chaos exhausts you, RDR2's Western pace is perfect.

Post-2.0 + Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk became the cyberpunk GTA fans wanted. Night City rivals Los Santos for density and style.

The franchise peak. Pure absurdist GTA parody with superpowers. Skip the 2022 reboot.

The 2025 Mafia prequel returns to the series' linear-cinematic roots. More story, less sandbox, but still open-world Italy.

Hack-the-city open world set in near-future London. The "play as anyone" recruit system is genuinely novel.

Hong Kong open world with martial-arts combat. A cult classic worth replaying via backward compatibility.

Pure chaos sandbox. Grappling hook + parachute + tornado weather = the funniest GTA alternative.

Tokyo open world with surprisingly emotional storytelling. Turn-based combat is a left turn but the side content is GTA-tier.

When GTA is mostly about the driving for you. NFS Unbound's open world and customization are top-tier.

Open-world Hawaii racing — the closest you can get to GTA's freeform driving without crime.

The free-to-play GTA-online competitor that still has a community. Free entry into the genre.

The twelve picks above are what to play now. These three are older, but none of them has a modern replacement, and each still runs on current hardware through a remaster, backward compatibility or a PC release.

Rockstar's school-year sandbox runs on the same engine family as the PS2-era GTAs, but swaps guns for slingshots and fistfights and gives Bullworth Academy a timetable you actually attend. It is the closest thing to a GTA you can hand a younger player, and the writing is as sharp as anything in San Andreas. The Scholarship Edition on Xbox 360 and PC is the version to get.

Rockstar published it, but it plays like the opposite of GTA: you drive 1947 Los Angeles as a detective, search crime scenes for clues and question suspects by reading their faces. If the GTA story missions are your favourite part, this is a whole game of them. The 2017 remaster runs on Switch as well as PS4, Xbox One and PC.

A 2006 licensed game that turned out better than it had any right to. It picks up where the film ends, with Tony Montana rebuilding his empire across Miami, and its "Balls" meter, which fills as you taunt enemies and refuels your rage mode, is still one of the few crime-game systems that rewards style over aim. It never got a re-release, so it means original hardware or a used PC copy.

Yes — Grand Theft Auto VI launched October 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. PC version expected late 2027.

Saints Row IV and Yakuza: Like a Dragon both run on Switch. GTA: The Trilogy also works.

Roblox: Brookhaven simulates open-world city life for free. APB Reloaded is a true free-to-play GTA clone on PC.

RDR2 has the deeper story; GTA 5 has more replay value via GTA Online. Both are essential.

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