107 Fun Facts About Grand Theft Auto

GTA V's lead studio, Rockstar North, is headquartered in which UK city?

Edinburgh became the studio's home when a 25-person branch opened there, yet the Grand Theft Auto series itself was born in Dundee.

In GTA V, which friend works alongside Franklin Clinton repossessing cars for a corrupt car dealer?

Lamar Davis later needs rescuing, after rival gangbanger Stretch betrays him to the Ballas and tries to have him killed.

GTA V's main city is a satirical version of which real US city?

Los Angeles is the model for Los Santos, and Rockstar's team made research trips around the real city to gather footage before building it.

Which actor provides the voice and motion capture for Trevor Philips?

Steven Ogg had stepped away from acting to build a house in the country before Rockstar hired him to play Trevor Philips.

GTA V opens in 2004 with a botched robbery in the town of Ludendorff, in which fictional snowy state?

North Yankton is where Michael fakes his death through a secret agreement with the FIB, then resurfaces years later living under an alias.

When GTA V made $1 billion in three days in 2013, it broke records held by which game series?

Call of Duty: Ghosts shipped $1 billion to retailers on day one later that year, yet Activision said even that was down on the previous game.

Grand Theft Auto 2 opened with a cut-down version of what kind of promotional film?

A live-action short film followed a criminal taking jobs from the city's gangs, until an assassin from a gang he had robbed killed him.

By 2026, GTA V had sold over 230 million copies, but which game had sold even more?

Minecraft's maker, Mojang, was bought by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, and its founders, including creator Markus Persson, left the company.

In GTA V, Franklin's special ability slows down time while he is doing what?

Driving is also how Franklin refills the ability's meter, since skilful moves such as drifting round corners top it up.

Michael's old friend Lester Crest, who plans the heists, is what kind of specialist?

Hacker Lester Crest helped Michael and Franklin rob a jewellery store to pay for repairs to Martin Madrazo's mansion, which Michael had wrecked.

Trevor Philips Enterprises, Trevor's meth-and-guns operation, is based in which small Blaine County town?

Sandy Shores is where Trevor settled while on the run, and he dreams of growing his small operation there into a large empire.

Which target does the trio hit for GTA V's final heist, 'The Big Score'?

The Union Depository job is the trio's biggest score, and afterwards Franklin is ordered to kill either Michael or Trevor.

Which private military company does Trevor go to war with in Blaine County?

Merryweather is the firm Trevor Philips keeps raiding for money and weapons to grow his business.

Rockstar's 2013 stimulus package for early GTA Online players made up for what?

A botched launch in October 2013 wiped some players' characters, so Rockstar paid the stimulus to everyone who had played since launch.

What brings Carl 'CJ' Johnson back home at the start of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?

His mother's murder brings CJ back home, where he finds his old street gang in decline and sets out to rebuild it.

In 2021, Rockstar paid a fan $10,000 for fixing which long-running GTA Online problem?

Slow loading times had dogged players for seven years until the fan, t0st, found the faulty code, and Rockstar made his fix official.

What do GTA Online's real-money Shark Cards give the buyer?

In-game currency is what Shark Cards sell, though the newer versions' Career Builder hands each new character enough of it to set up a business.

The Cayo Perico Heist requires players to buy what kind of vehicle to reach El Rubio's island?

The Kosatka comes with a one-man crew, ex-Russian Navy sailor Pavel, and the heist was the first that could be finished solo.

In GTA Online's The Contract, whose stolen phone of unreleased music does Franklin's agency recover?

Dr. Dre also made new music for The Contract, and his fresh tracks were added to the game's radio stations.

Which German electronic group co-composed GTA V's original score, the series' first?

Tangerine Dream's founder Edgar Froese first turned down the idea of scoring a video game before joining Woody Jackson, The Alchemist and Oh No.

Which actress sued over GTA V in 2014, claiming the game's starlet Lacey Jonas was based on her?

Lindsay Lohan's case was thrown out in 2016, when a New York appeals court called the game a work of fiction and satire.

Before living under the alias De Santa, Michael's real surname was what?

Townley is the name on Michael's supposed grave, where Trevor later discovers their old partner Brad buried instead.

In GTA: Vice City, what goes wrong that leaves Tommy Vercetti needing to repay his mob boss?

His drug deal is ambushed in a setup by drug lord Ricardo Diaz, whom Tommy later kills before taking over his assets.

In GTA Online's Doomsday Heist, the player storms a secret missile base hidden inside which mountain?

Mount Chiliad hides the launch facility where players must stop a missile launch and take out Avon Hertz.

Which Scottish studio developed the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997?

DMA Design's game had help from publicist Max Clifford, hired by its publisher to stir up press outrage as free publicity.

Under what working title did the original Grand Theft Auto begin development?

Race 'n' Chase started life as a cops-and-robbers chase game, and the team then made the player the criminal rather than the cop.

From what perspective was the original 1997 Grand Theft Auto played?

Top-down views came first, but Rockstar had long pushed for a 3D, street-level world, which the team finally built for GTA III.

Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) is set in a retrofuturistic metropolis with what name?

Anywhere City's gangs keep score: earning respect with one syndicate by doing its jobs turns its chief rivals hostile.

Which real-world event led Rockstar to delay the release of GTA III?

The September 11 attacks hit weeks before launch, so Rockstar pushed GTA III back three weeks to change references that no longer felt appropriate.

GTA III's protagonist never speaks a word and isn't even named until San Andreas. What is his name?

The developers wanted a strong, silent killer to contrast with the neurotic, verbose mobsters around him.

Which Goodfellas star voiced Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City?

Ray Liotta's Tommy eventually turns on the mob bosses who sent him south and builds a criminal empire of his own.

Who voiced Carl 'CJ' Johnson in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?

Young Maylay won the part after Rockstar staff overheard him chatting on DJ Pooh's speakerphone during a meeting about the game.

Samuel L. Jackson voices which corrupt San Andreas character?

Frank Tenpenny corners CJ on his return and threatens to frame him for killing a fellow police officer unless he co-operates.

After the hidden "Hot Coffee" minigame was found in San Andreas, the ESRB changed the rating to what?

Adults Only kept the game off most major US shelves, so Rockstar stopped manufacturing that version, and an FTC investigation followed.

In GTA IV, Niko Bellic arrives in Liberty City aboard a cargo ship with what name?

The Platypus returns at the finale: if Niko chooses revenge, he confronts his betrayer Dimitri aboard the very same ship.

GTA IV's Liberty City neighbours the state of Alderney, which is modelled on which real place?

New Jersey's stand-in starts off-limits, because the bridges and tunnels from Liberty City stay shut over a terrorist threat until the story reopens them.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009) was originally released for which handheld?

Nintendo DS owners got a critically acclaimed GTA, yet it sold under 90,000 copies in its first US weeks.

Rockstar Games was set up in New York in December 1998 as a publishing label of which parent company?

Take-Two Interactive had bought BMG Interactive, publisher of the first Grand Theft Auto, earlier that year.

Which Rockstar co-founder and head writer left in 2020 and later set up Absurd Ventures?

He wrote or co-wrote a dozen GTA titles plus both Red Dead Redemptions; GTA VI is the first main entry since 1997 without him.

What was the 2015 BBC docudrama about Rockstar's legal feud with a GTA critic, starring Daniel Radcliffe, called?

The Gamechangers drew a trademark lawsuit from Rockstar, which said it had no involvement with the BBC's film.

Which former Rockstar North president sued Rockstar in 2016 over unpaid royalties?

Leslie Benzies said his sabbatical after GTA V was really a forced exit, while Rockstar said he had simply decided not to return.

Grand Theft Auto VI is set in which fictional US state, a stand-in for Florida?

Leonida's Vice City is based on Miami, where Rockstar embedded a research team that met ex-criminals, club promoters and police.

Which character is Lucia Caminos's partner in crime in Grand Theft Auto VI?

Jason Duval and Lucia are forced to rely on each other when an easy score goes wrong and drags them into a criminal conspiracy.

In GTA III, who betrays the silent hero by shooting him during a bank heist?

His girlfriend, Catalina, shoots him and leaves him to be arrested, so payback against her drives GTA III's story.

Whose song "Love Is a Long Road" soundtracked the first GTA VI trailer and jumped nearly 37,000% on Spotify?

The second trailer went even bigger, pulling the Pointer Sisters' 'Hot Together' up by about 182,000%.

As of 2026, GTA VI is due on PlayStation 5 and which other platform?

Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 players have waited through two delays, as Rockstar moved GTA VI from 2025 to May 2026 and then to November 2026.

The teenager behind the September 2022 GTA VI footage leak was a key member of which cybercrime gang?

A Lapsus$ member, he breached Rockstar while on bail in a hotel, using an Amazon Fire Stick, the room's TV and a mobile phone.

Which later-disbarred lawyer repeatedly sued over Grand Theft Auto, blaming the games for real-world violence?

Jack Thompson sued over a 2003 Alabama shooting in which 18-year-old Devin Moore killed two police officers and a dispatcher.

Which country's Justice Ministry banned the original 1997 Grand Theft Auto?

Brazil banned it outright, while in Britain a peer asked the government months before release whether it would take action against the game.

Which actor voices Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV?

Michael Hollick was reportedly paid about $100,000 for the role, with no residuals from a game that made $500 million in its first week.

In GTA IV, whose exaggerated tales of riches lure Niko Bellic to Liberty City?

His cousin Roman had boasted of luxury, but Niko finds him running an unprofitable taxi firm and dodging loan sharks.

GTA IV's procedural character animation came from which NaturalMotion software?

Euphoria synthesises characters' reactions in real time, so the same scene can play out differently every time.

Which Miami Vice star voices Lance Vance in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City?

Philip Michael Thomas voices Lance Vance, who betrays Tommy in the finale by telling Sonny Forelli that Tommy's payment is counterfeit.

In GTA: San Andreas, what sets off the city-wide riot near the end of the story?

A crooked cop walks free when the charges against him are dropped, echoing the real 1992 riots, which broke out hours after officers were acquitted over the Rodney King beating.

Which real city inspired the casino city in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?

Las Vegas is the model for Las Venturas, and after finishing Vice City the team travelled to each real city the game copies for research.

Which sequel ruled 2004's game sales with San Andreas?

Halo 2 was promoted with I Love Bees, an alternate-reality game that sent players out to answer ringing pay phones.

Which real LAPD affair helped shape San Andreas's story of corrupt CRASH officers?

Rampart's anti-gang CRASH unit was exposed in the late 1990s: about 70 officers were implicated, over 100 convictions were overturned, and the LAPD disbanded CRASH.

Before Grand Theft Auto, the studio now called Rockstar North was best known for which puzzle game?

Lemmings sold so well after its 1991 release that the small team had to move into proper offices. Six years later the same studio let players steal cars instead of saving rodents.

Which future Oscar-winning director made his feature debut with a 1977 road comedy titled Grand Theft Auto?

Ron Howard also starred in the film, which shares nothing with the games except the police term for stealing a car. Rockstar's series arrived twenty years later.

Which British comedian performs stand-up as himself at the Split Sides comedy club in GTA IV?

Ricky Gervais shares the virtual stage with American comic Katt Williams, and also turns up as a guest on one of the game's talk radio stations.

Which fashion designer lent his voice to GTA IV as host of the fictional radio station K109?

Karl Lagerfeld, then the creative director of Chanel, kept the DJ job for both of the game's story expansions, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Trevor Philips, the volatile smuggler and ex-military pilot of GTA V, was born in which country?

Canada is where Trevor was born, just north of the US border. A failed psychological evaluation ended his short career as a military pilot.

Which PC storefront's servers crashed in May 2020 after it offered GTA V as a free giveaway?

Epic Games Store buckled as more than seven million new users signed up to claim a game that was already nearly seven years old.

The engine that powers GTA IV and GTA V first appeared in a 2006 Rockstar game about which sport?

Table tennis was the unlikely test bed: Rockstar San Diego's ping-pong game introduced the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine two years before GTA IV used it for a whole city.

Which single word is shown on screen when the player's character is killed in a Grand Theft Auto game?

Wasted has marked the player's death since the 1997 original, where it also cost a life and reset the score multiplier. Being arrested earns a different word.

Which British singer appears as himself in GTA: Vice City Stories, where hitmen threaten his concert?

Phil Collins needs protecting before and during his show because his talent manager is in debt to the Mafia.

Which real city was the setting for two 1999 expansion packs to the original Grand Theft Auto?

London in the 1960s gave the series a real-life setting in place of the base game's three invented cities, complete with period vehicles and British slang.

The city where CJ wins a garage in a street race in GTA: San Andreas is modelled on which real city?

San Francisco inspired San Fierro, the second of the game's three cities, where CJ turns his prize garage into a profitable chop shop with help from his sister.

Algonquin, an island locked at the start of GTA IV, is Liberty City's version of which New York borough?

Manhattan became Algonquin, while Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx turned into Broker, Dukes and Bohan. Only four of the five boroughs made it into the game.

Which 1970s Hollywood leading man voiced Texan tycoon Avery Carrington in GTA: Vice City?

Burt Reynolds plays the tycoon who nudges Tommy toward building an empire by buying up nearly bankrupt businesses and using them as fronts.

Which hard rock frontman joined Chuck D and George Clinton among the radio DJs of GTA: San Andreas?

Axl Rose was one of twenty disc jockeys across the game's eleven stations, which carried more than three times as many licensed songs as GTA III.

Tommy Vercetti first appears in GTA: Vice City wearing jeans, white sneakers and which style of shirt?

Hawaiian, in teal, is what Tommy puts on after fifteen years in prison, a sentence that began on death row before it was commuted.

On Grand Theft Auto's wanted meter, what symbols count up as the police response to the player grows?

Stars measure the trouble a player is in: one brings a few police cars, while five or six can bring tanks and helicopter gunships.

Which GTA Online setting makes a player immune to everyone else in the same session?

Passive Mode lets a player roam Los Santos untouched by the up to 29 other people sharing the map.

Which streaming service offered subscribers the remastered GTA trilogy on phones from December 2023?

Netflix added the three remasters for Android and iOS, two years after the collection's bug-ridden console release forced Rockstar to apologise.

Which 2006 open-world crime game did its own maker later call a "ripoff" of Grand Theft Auto III?

Saints Row borrowed the GTA III design wholesale, its maker said, and thrived because it reached a new console generation before any real competition.

Along with Kmart, which chain's Australian stores pulled GTA V from sale in 2014 after a petition?

Target acted after more than 40,000 people signed a Change.org petition objecting to the game's violence towards women.

Which rival gang do Big Smoke and Ryder secretly side with against CJ's Grove Street Families in GTA: San Andreas?

Ballas were the old enemy all along. CJ and Cesar, his sister's boyfriend, catch two of his oldest friends dealing with them in secret.

Which rapper voiced Madd Dogg, the chart-topping MC whose written rhymes CJ steals in GTA: San Andreas?

Ice-T's character sees his career ruined by the theft, until CJ gets him into rehab and becomes his new manager.

Which veteran of 1960s counterculture films voiced the ageing hippie called The Truth in GTA: San Andreas?

Peter Fonda's hippie, a marijuana farmer, befriends CJ and later sends him to steal a $60 million jetpack from the Area 69 military base.

Which British actor voiced Kent Paul, the band manager with underworld contacts in GTA: Vice City?

Danny Dyer's character is one of the first contacts Tommy leans on while working out who set him up.

Which British model voiced the DJ of pop station Non-Stop-Pop FM in Grand Theft Auto V?

Cara Delevingne plays a host named after herself, DJ Cara, a part she recorded the year after first being named Model of the Year in Britain.

Which actor plays Michael De Santa, the retired bank robber among Grand Theft Auto V's three protagonists?

Ned Luke leads the trio alongside Shawn Fonteno, who plays street gangster Franklin Clinton, with most of their scenes recorded in motion capture.

Which new way to play was added when GTA V was re-released for newer consoles in November 2014?

First-person view on foot was the headline addition, and it forced the team to overhaul the game's whole animation system.

In GTA V's finale, Franklin can kill Trevor, kill Michael, or pick a third option to do what?

Save them both is a suicide mission by design. Choose a killing instead and Franklin's friendship with the man he spares is over.

In GTA's The Ballad of Gay Tony, bodyguard Luis Lopez works for a man who runs what kind of business?

Nightclubs are Tony Prince's empire, and Luis spends the story shielding him from debt, Mafia families and repeated assassination attempts.

In GTA Online, buying what at the Diamond Casino & Resort unlocks its exclusive areas and missions?

A penthouse, highly customisable, is the key to the casino's members-only side, which opened in July 2019 with its tables of gambling minigames.

What are the organised teams of GTA Online players, a feature carried over from Max Payne 3, called?

Crews band together to complete jobs, and the Rockstar Social Club let groups formed in Max Payne 3's multiplayer carry straight over.

Which GTA Online toolset lets players build their own custom racetracks and deathmatches?

Content Creator hands players the parameters of a job, from the route of a track to where the weapons spawn in a deathmatch.

Which role-play server for GTA V made the game the most-watched category on Twitch in February 2021?

NoPixel, one of the largest servers on the FiveM mod, drew that audience with a single update, and was costing around $10,000 a month to host.

Which GTA V mission unsettled reviewers by making the player use torture equipment on a hostage?

By the Book was read as commentary on the US government's use of torture, but reviewers found the interactive sequence in poor taste.

Which billionaire venture capitalist turns on Michael in GTA V after trying to shut down a film studio?

Devin Weston is a corporate raider, and his thirst for vengeance is one of the pressures behind the choice Franklin faces at the end of the game.

GTA V's viral marketing invited fans to join which fictional cult for a chance to appear in the game?

The Epsilon Program had its own recruitment website before release, and fans who signed up could end up in the game as members of the cult.

Which Russian mobster betrays Niko Bellic in GTA IV after talking him into killing boss Mikhail Faustin?

Dimitri Rascalov hands Niko straight to an old employer with a grudge, then has Roman's home and business burned down.

In GTA III, which Mafia don rigs a car with explosives to kill the hero over a supposed affair?

Salvatore Leone acts after his wife Maria invents the affair to make him jealous, and it is Maria who warns the hero that the job is a trap.

Which Criterion Games engine powered Grand Theft Auto III, the first 3D entry in the series?

RenderWare served the series until its maker was bought by rival publisher Electronic Arts in 2004, which pushed Rockstar to build an engine of its own.

Which British publicist ran the first Grand Theft Auto's marketing, turning its controversy into free promotion?

Max Clifford had plenty to work with: the game was controversial before it even came out, with talk of banning its sale over the violence.

Which rocket-armed hoverbike, added to GTA Online in 2018, became notorious as a tool for griefing?

Oppressor Mk II riders can fit machine guns, homing missiles and flare countermeasures, which made the bike a favourite for hunting other players.

Which GTA V sports car, the game's counterpart of the Dodge Viper, did West Coast Customs build for real?

Banshee, sold in the game under the Bravado badge, became a working car that GameStop gave away in a promotional raffle.

What kind of aircraft, branded Atomic, did every pre-order of Grand Theft Auto V unlock in the game?

Blimp access arrived as a code with every pre-order, part of a marketing push that also put a real sports car up for raffle.

Which type of vehicle was left out of GTA IV because Liberty City's map was too small, then returned in GTA V?

Aeroplanes returned with a purpose: Trevor Philips is a trained pilot who built his criminal career on smuggling by air.

In GTA IV, Roman boasts of luxury and fast cars but really owns what kind of unprofitable business?

A taxi firm is all Roman has, along with gambling debts and a small, dirty apartment. Win his trust and his cabs carry Niko anywhere for free.

In GTA IV's The Lost and Damned, Johnny Klebitz is vice-president of The Lost, which is what kind of gang?

A motorcycle club with a Liberty City chapter, The Lost suits Johnny: he rides a custom-made bike and handles motorcycles better than any other vehicle.

In GTA: Chinatown Wars, stealing an older parked car means turning which tool in the ignition?

A screwdriver does for old cars, while others have to be hotwired and the newest need their computerised immobiliser hacked.

Which underground hub for car enthusiasts did GTA Online players join in 2021's Los Santos Tuners update?

LS Car Meet is a social space where players customise and test drive cars, and its update brought 17 tuner vehicles to fill it.

Arena War, a 2018 GTA Online update set at the Maze Bank Arena, is themed on which kind of motorsport event?

Demolition derby goes science fiction in the update, whose armoured vehicles drew comparisons to Mad Max and Robot Wars.

Rockstar reworked car handling for GTA V after admitting GTA IV's cars steered like which other vehicles?

Boats was Rockstar's own comparison for the older game's controls, and the fix took its cues from dedicated racing games.