Crystal ball: Rockstar has always made PC players wait for its big releases, sometimes for a year or two. If a new report proves accurate, however, Grand Theft Auto VI could break that pattern. The reason may have less to do with goodwill toward PC gamers and more to do with where GTA's online future is likely to be built.
Rockstar plans to release the PC version of Grand Theft Auto VI as soon as Q1 2027, according to a GamesBeat report citing four industry sources. Rockstar has not responded to requests for comment, and there's no official announcement yet either.
Meanwhile, the long-awaited console version of GTA VI remains on track for November 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. A Q1 2027 PC launch would mean a gap of just a few months.
That would be a sharp break from Rockstar's track record: GTA V launched on consoles in September 2013 and did not reach PC until April 2015, some 19 months later. In the case of Red Dead Redemption 2, the game arrived on consoles in October 2018 and on PC in November 2019.
This new report contradicts the company's public messaging, at least on the surface. In May, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Bloomberg that Rockstar "always starts on console" because it needs to serve its core audience first. In the same interview, he acknowledged that PC can account for 45% to 50% of sales on some titles.
Leaked analytics data suggests why Take-Two sees consoles as the core. The data was dumped by ShinyHunters after Rockstar ignored a ransom demand. According to those figures, PC accounted for 11% of GTA Online's weekly active users but only 3% of its bookings, generating around $0.30 per user per week. PS5 users generated roughly $1.29 per user per week.
The wildcard: Roleplay servers live on PC
So why rush a port for the platform that spends the least? A possible answer is roleplay. In 2023, Rockstar acquired FiveM, the mod framework that powers GTA V's huge roleplay server scene, and it runs entirely on PC. Rockstar has also signaled plans for user-generated content tools in GTA VI.
The rumor would tie in nicely with GTA VI's still-unannounced online mode. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy recently told Bloomberg that Rockstar's multiplayer component will launch next year. A PC release in early 2027 would put the platform in place before GTA Online's successor goes live, rather than leaving PC players to join a year or more later.
But preparing for a PC release will take extra time, unless Rockstar already has it ready internally and is just using the remaining months to polish and troubleshoot, while finalizing performance targets, system requirements, upscaling support, and how far the PC version might push visuals beyond consoles.
Still, for those who have been around long enough, shipping mere months after such a big release sounds too optimistic. Rockstar has already delayed GTA VI twice, from 2025 to May 2026 and then to November 19. The game's budget is rumored to exceed $2 billion, and the PC version will still need to meet the same quality bar as the console release.