Don’t worry, Rockstar hasn’t announced any Grand Theft Auto 6 delay again — at least not yet. But if a rumor is accurate, we might have to wait a little longer for one big part of the experience. According to a claim from Call of Duty leaker TheGhostOfHope, GTA 6 Online will be released ‘within a month’ of the base game. Although we should take it with a healthy amount of salt, it’s not hard to see why Rockstar might go that route.
After all, it’s basically Rockstar’s own playbook at this point. When GTA 5 launched in 2013, the Online Mode didn’t arrive until two weeks later. But once it dropped, things got messy real fast. Overly eager players keep getting booted from servers, saves disappear, and Rockstar has had to deploy multiple patches while disabling microtransactions.
The same pattern repeated with Red Dead Redemption 2. Its multiplayer part launched later — as a beta even — but still faced disconnection and stability issues, such as the infamous 0x20010006 error.
Rockstar actually explained why they do staggered releases for GTA and RDR Online. The former series lead Leslie Benzies said they wanted players to ‘get their heads around‘ the massive single-player experience first. The team also treated GTA Online as its own evolving platform rather than just an additional mode to the base game. That logic suddenly sounds very relevant again in 2026.
Arguably, delaying GTA 6 Online release could be a smart move on Rockstar’s part. Highly anticipated online games often struggle to keep their servers open in their first days. We saw it with GTA and RDR Online. Battlefield 6‘s server also buckled under the pressure of millions of excited gamers despite strong beta performance. It wouldn’t be a surprise if GTA 6‘s player count instantly dwarfs its predecessors and other AAA releases in sheer player demand.
Another staggered release should give Rockstar time to monitor player numbers, stress test infrastructure, and perhaps push fixes before opening the floodgates. It also lets us focus on exploring Vice City at our own pace first, instead of racing straight into grinding money for whatever the equivalent of Oppressor Mk II is this time.
If this is true, then let’s hope GTA 6 Online will be playable with minimal hitches. And yes, you know full well we’ll be getting overpowered and overpriced weapons again to push Shark Cards sales.
