Published 25 October 2026 by the GTA6map.org editorial team. Sources are linked at the end.
Two official videos have shaped what we know about the geography of Grand Theft Auto VI since the summer. The first was "Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look", which premiered on Netflix on Thursday 27 August 2026 and went up on Rockstar's YouTube channel and the official site later that day. The second was the launch trailer, posted on the Rockstar Newswire on 15 October 2026. This article looks at both strictly from a map point of view: what part of Leonida appeared on screen, what Rockstar said about scale, and what is still missing before 19 November.
The short version
- Neither video showed an official top-down map of Leonida. Everything you see in "full map" images is still fan-made or leaked.
- The Extended Look was ground-level gameplay: city streets, a skyscraper jump, Everglades-style wetlands and open water.
- Size comparisons now exist, but they reached the public second-hand through a preview, not through a Rockstar press release.
- Nothing in either video forced us to move a marker on our interactive map.
Places you could recognise in the Extended Look
VGC described the presentation as just over 30 minutes of footage captured on a base PS5. From a map perspective, the useful material falls into four groups.
Vice City at street level. The opening drug deal and the escape from Lucia's apartment lead straight into the first extended look at driving through the city. VGC notes that the city itself was not labelled by district, which matches our position on the Vice City page: districts are described by what is visible, not by leaked names.
The skyline from above. A parachute jump from a tall building was used to show off draw distance, and Kotaku pointed out Lucia looking over a large metropolis before skydiving. This is the closest the video came to an aerial overview, and it supports the idea of a dense, tall downtown core rather than a low-rise city.
Wetlands and open water. Airboat rides through Everglades-style marsh, kayaking and jet skis on open water, and manatees swimming in the swamps all appeared. In map terms this is the territory Rockstar calls Grassrivers, and it confirms that water is not decoration: it is traversable and full of activities. See our locations hub for how we place that biome.
Off-road terrain. Dirt bike races were shown away from the city. Rockstar did not name the area on screen, so we do not tie that footage to a specific region.
Map features inside the game
A few interface details matter more for explorers than any landscape shot.
- A 3D minimap. Kotaku spotted that the minimap renders buildings in three dimensions, which should help in vertical spaces like downtown towers and multi-level parking.
- A search area for the police. VGC reports that the wanted system now shows a circle on the map for the area where police are looking for you, instead of individual police vehicle markers. Leaving that circle is the obvious way to escape.
- Disguises and outfit changes. Changing masks, hats and clothes before or after a crime reduces heat, according to VGC. On a big map that turns clothing shops and safehouses into useful waypoints.
What Rockstar said about size
Around the Extended Look, the YouTuber TGG visited Rockstar North and spoke with head of development Rob Nelson. As reported by Kotaku on 27 August and VGC on 28 August, TGG relayed these comparisons:
- the full map is about twice the size of GTA 5's,
- it is about three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2's,
- Vice City alone is about twice the size of Los Santos, and Vice City with its suburbs about eleven times Los Santos and its surroundings.
We treat these as Rockstar statements reported second-hand. They are far more reliable than fan pixel counts, but they are comparisons, not a measured area. Our map size and map vs GTA 5 pages explain how we use them.
What the launch trailer added
The launch trailer published on 15 October 2026 focuses on Jason and Lucia, with helicopter action, gunfights and flashbacks to Jason's military past, and Rockstar says it was captured on PS5. It is a story trailer, not a geography tour. It did not name new regions, and it did not show a world map.
What is still not shown
Before launch, three things remain unofficial: the exact outline of Leonida, the borders between its regions, and any square-kilometre figure. Until the game itself is in players' hands on 19 November 2026, our marker positions stay labelled as community estimates, and the leaked county image discussed on the leaked map page stays a rumour.
Sources
- Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto VI launch trailer (15 October 2026): https://www.rockstargames.com/videos/76orsa95
- VGC, "Everything shown at the Grand Theft Auto 6 Netflix special" (27 August 2026): https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/everything-shown-at-the-grand-theft-auto-6-netflix-special/
- Kotaku, details spotted in the Netflix gameplay reveal (27 August 2026): https://kotaku.com/15-cool-detail-we-spotted-in-gta-6s-big-netflix-gameplay-reveal-2000729042
- Kotaku, map size comparison (27 August 2026): https://kotaku.com/gta-6s-vice-city-is-rockstars-biggest-yet-and-the-whole-map-is-three-times-larger-than-red-dead-redemption-2-2000728978
- VGC, "Grand Theft Auto 6's map is three times bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2" (28 August 2026): https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/grand-theft-auto-6s-map-is-three-times-bigger-than-red-dead-redemption-2/
More dated updates are collected on the map news page.