Games to Play Before GTA 6, and How Long Each Takes

The best games to play before GTA 6 are ones you can finish by November 19. From October 30, that leaves 20 days. At an hour a day, pick Mafia: The Old Country, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or Red Dead Redemption; at two hours, Cyberpunk 2077, GTA: San Andreas or GTA V also fit. Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t.

No delay has been announced as of October 30, 2026. Take-Two lists Grand Theft Auto VI for November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S,¹ and Rockstar says digital pre-orders can be pre-loaded from November 12.² The game is set in Vice City, in the state of Leonida, with two leads, Jason and Lucia.³ Every play time below is HowLongToBeat’s average of players’ reported times, rounded to the half hour and checked on October 30, 2026.⁴ We make Omniphile, a tracking app for iPhone and iPad, and the last section shows how we plan a backlog in it.

Games to play before GTA 6 at a glance

The “fits” columns compare each game’s main story with the 20 days left from October 30.

How to plan your backlog before GTA 6

1. Count the hours you really have

   Multiply the days left by the time you play on a typical day. From October 30, the 20 days to launch give 20 hours at one hour a day and 40 at two. Each day you wait takes one or two hours off.

2. Plan with the main story

   HowLongToBeat’s main-story time is the average for players who went straight through. If you explore, use the main + extras time, and keep a few hours spare either way.

3. Choose one long game or two short ones

   At two hours a day, Mafia: The Old Country and Vice City together take 28.5 hours, and Vice City with Red Dead Redemption takes 34. All three short picks add up to 46, which is over the limit.

4. Leave launch week for setup

   Pre-loading opens on November 12. Finishing a few days early leaves room to free up storage and download the game.

Games that fit at an hour a day

Mafia: The Old Country (12 hours)

Hangar 13’s prequel to the Mafia series is set in Sicily in the early 1900s and follows Enzo Favara as he takes the oath and works his way up Don Torrisi’s crime family. It came out in August 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.⁵ It is the shortest pick here: 12 hours for the main story, 14.5 with extras. At an hour a day, it is done by November 10.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (16.5 hours)

GTA VI goes back to Vice City, Rockstar’s version of Miami, so the 2002 game set there is the most fitting warm-up. Tommy Vercetti’s 1980s crime story takes 16.5 hours for the main story and 23.5 with extras. The remastered version is part of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, released in 2021 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC,⁶ which also includes GTA III and San Andreas.

Red Dead Redemption (17.5 hours)

Rockstar’s 2010 western follows John Marston across the American West and Mexico in 1911, and its main story takes 17.5 hours, or 26 with extras. On December 2, 2025, Rockstar released it on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, with a free upgrade for owners of the PS4, Xbox One and Switch versions, and on iOS, Android and Netflix.⁷ The Undead Nightmare expansion is included, and adds about 6.5 hours of its own.

Longer games that fit at two hours a day

Cyberpunk 2077 (26 hours)

CD Projekt Red’s open-world game in Night City is the pick if you want a different studio’s crime city. The main story averages 26 hours, but the main story with extras jumps to 63, so set yourself a limit on side jobs. The Phantom Liberty expansion adds 13.5 hours; with the main story that makes 39.5, just inside the 40 hours you have at two hours a day, with nothing to spare. It runs on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and on Nintendo Switch 2 as the Ultimate Edition, which includes Phantom Liberty.⁸

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (30 hours)

Carl Johnson’s return to Los Santos in the early 1990s is the longest of the three classic games, at 30 hours for the main story. It is in the same Definitive Edition trilogy as Vice City,⁶ so one purchase covers both, though not both before launch: together they take 46.5 hours.

Grand Theft Auto V (32 hours)

If you never finished it, GTA V is Rockstar’s most recent GTA story, with three leads in Los Santos. Its main story averages 32 hours, which fits at two hours a day with four days to spare. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions came out on March 15, 2022.⁹

The one that doesn’t fit: Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2’s main story averages 50.5 hours, 84.5 with extras and 196 to complete everything. Started on October 30 at two hours a day, the main story would end around November 24, five days after GTA VI arrives. It is still a PS4, Xbox One and PC game; Rockstar confirmed in 2020 that the PS4 and Xbox One versions run on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S through backward compatibility.¹⁰ A native version for the newer consoles has been reported but not announced. Save it for after GTA VI, or play Red Dead Redemption now as a shorter way into the same world.

How long is GTA 6 story mode?

Rockstar has not published a length. In an interview with The New York Times in August 2026, Rob Nelson, co-studio head of Rockstar North, said his playthrough of the story and some optional goals took about 80 hours, as reported by Pure Xbox.¹¹ That is one developer’s run, and it included content outside the main story.

For scale, GTA V’s main story averages 32 hours and 51 with extras, and Red Dead Redemption 2’s 50.5 and 84.5.⁴ If GTA VI does take about 80 hours, that is 40 days at two hours a day, so a player starting on November 19 would finish around December 28, or 80 days at one hour a day, into early February 2027.

If you plan long sessions on launch weekend, the advice from research on whether binge-watching is bad for you is worth borrowing: the clearest physical risk it found in long TV sessions is sitting still, so get up every 30 minutes.

Plan and track your backlog in Omniphile

We plan ours in Omniphile, our tracking app for iPhone and iPad. It imports a backlog from HowLongToBeat, GameTrack, Minimap or Nook, and each released game’s page shows estimates for the main story, main plus extras and a completionist run. Start a playthrough when you begin a game and time your sessions, so you can see whether you are on pace for launch day. Add Grand Theft Auto VI to your library and a release notification, part of the optional Premium subscription, will tell you when it is out. The app is free to download and runs on iPhone and iPad; dated release notes are in the changelog. On Android or a computer, HowLongToBeat’s own site keeps a backlog with the same play times.