Before GTA 6
Everything that happened
while we waited
“We got X before GTA 6” started as a joke. Here is the answer: the 4,811-day wait from GTA V to November 19, 2026, with Rockstar's own record on one side and the rest of the world on the other.
The wait, by the numbers
- 4,811days from GTA V to GTA VI
- 3,062days before Rockstar even confirmed it
- 2console generations launched during the wait
- 2delays after a date was set
What happened before GTA 6
GTA 6 entries are the official record from our news archive. Meanwhile entries are what the rest of the world got done, each with a source you can check.
2013
- GTA VGrand Theft Auto V comes out. The wait begins.
2014
- MeanwhileFlappy Bird was pulled from the app stores by its own creator at the height of its fame.Source: Wikipedia
- MeanwhileMicrosoft agreed to buy Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion.Source: Wikipedia
2015
- MeanwhileNASA’s New Horizons flew past Pluto and sent back the first close-up pictures of it.Source: Wikipedia
2016
- MeanwhileScientists announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, a century after Einstein predicted them.Source: Wikipedia
2017
2018
- MeanwhileFalcon Heavy’s first flight sent a Tesla Roadster into orbit around the Sun.Source: Wikipedia
- MeanwhileRockstar released a whole other game in the meantime: Red Dead Redemption 2.Source: Wikipedia
2019
- MeanwhileAvengers: Endgame opened, and for a while it was the highest-grossing film ever made.Source: Wikipedia
- MeanwhileGame of Thrones ended. The argument about the ending lasted longer than some console generations.Source: Wikipedia
2020
2021
- MeanwhileNASA’s Ingenuity made the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, on Mars.Source: Wikipedia
- MeanwhileThe James Webb Space Telescope launched. Its first full-colour images arrived the following July.Source: Wikipedia
2022
2023
- MeanwhileIndia’s Chandrayaan-3 became the first mission to land near the Moon’s south pole.Source: Wikipedia
2024
- MeanwhileSpaceX caught a returning Starship booster in mid-air with the arms of its launch tower.Source: Wikipedia
2025
- MeanwhileThe Nintendo Switch 2 launched, a whole console generation after the first Switch.Source: Wikipedia
2026
- GTA 6Grand Theft Auto VI launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
The meme, explained
What does "before GTA 6" mean?
It is a joke format: "we got X before GTA 6". Any event that seems unlikely, far-off or absurd is measured against the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, because for years that release felt like the one thing that would never arrive. Rockstar only confirmed the game in February 2022, more than eight years after GTA V, and it was delayed twice after that.
Why did the meme catch on?
The gap. GTA V came out in September 2013 and stayed one of the best-selling games in the world for over a decade, while its sequel stayed silent until 2022. A whole console generation came and went. When the wait is that long, almost anything really did happen first, which is what makes the joke work.
How long was the wait for GTA 6?
From GTA V's release on September 17, 2013 to GTA VI's on November 19, 2026 is 4,811 days — a little over 13 years.
Is the meme over now that GTA 6 has a date?
Not until launch day. Each delay gave the format another round, and until the game is actually in people’s hands, "before GTA 6" still has a deadline to run against.