Want to wreak havoc in Vice City? Budding virtual crimelords might need to show Rockstar their IDs before being able to do so. A reliable GTA dataminer recently uncovered codes that hint at an age verification system for GTA Online. It could spell serious trouble for GTA 6 too, potentially driving away millions of players from one of the hypest releases of the decade.
On X, dataminer Tez2 showcased new lines of code that could be prepared for a GTA Online update. The leaked strings reference messages like “You must meet the minimum age requirement to access this online feature.” Snapmatic photo uploads, store access, and even text chat could get blocked until you’ve passed the check.
Based on the codes, the changes don’t seem to just affect social features either. Other warnings say, “Verify your age to access Grand Theft Auto Online.” There are also fallback errors for when Rockstar’s servers can’t complete the verification, implying this is more than just a placeholder. To make things worse, this update could be rolled out by region.
While Rockstar hasn’t confirmed anything at the time of writing, this new rule follows a broader trend where platforms are tightening their online safety nets. Xbox, for example, is rolling out an age verification in the UK under the Online Safety Act. Similar to what the GTA Online codes entail, this system locks social features to ‘friends only’ unless players prove they’re over 18.
It’s not a stretch to imagine that Rockstar could be setting up the groundwork for something bigger, thanks to regulatory pressure. And that means applying it to its next biggest entry yet: GTA 6.
As the company is staking everything on the game, one thing might come to mind. How much could this translate to lost players and, more importantly, sales for future games like GTA 6? Let’s take the company’s current money-maker, GTA 5 and Online, as the benchmark.
Truth be told, concrete age demographics for GTA Online are hard to pin down. Based on fan polls across sites and forums, Levvvel.com found that the 35-54 age group dominates the game at 29.34%. Meanwhile, players aged 13-17 years old are claimed to be the next smallest subset after 55 and older, likely making up around 10%.
That’s a conservative estimate; realistically, I’m sure anyone who’s spent even just five minutes in a GTA Online lobby knows the number is higher. Much higher. This guess isn’t baseless either — British YouGov data reports “seven in ten” GTA gamers first played the series before turning 17.
Now, for simplicity’s sake, even sticking to 10%, the math is quite staggering. By 2025, GTA 5 will have sold over 215 million copies globally, with an estimated lifetime revenue of $8.6 billion. That means underage players could account for roughly 21 million copies and around $860 million in revenue.
Then, let’s say that GTA 6 does implement strict age verification at launch. I’m not surprised if it instantly locked out quite a number of potential audiences. We’re talking tens of millions of players forced to give up on playing the game entirely. Rockstar could easily miss the ‘more than a billion’ preorders prediction if that’s to happen.
And that’s just counting minors. Plenty of adults aren’t exactly thrilled to hand over personal data just to play a video game. Throw in ID scans, or worse, facial recognition, and privacy-conscious power users might just walk away. Rockstar’s already infamous for clunky online systems and the disastrous 2024 megaleak. Adding extra steps that revolve around online verification could be the last straw for many.
If Rockstar ends up flipping this switch in GTA Online and ships GTA6 with the same gates? The company might learn fast that asking for a ‘license’ to play robbers-and-no-cops risks losing millions of Shark Card buyers.
