200 GB and Growing: How Grand Theft Auto File Sizes Ballooned
Run a Speedtest today to see how well your network connection will be able to handle the demands of GTA 6.
When Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19, players will need room for a reported 210 GB file size. That's massive. It’s about 40% bigger than famously huge games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3, and downloading it will use about as much data as binging 70 hours of HD shows on Netflix!
There's a good reason GTA 6 is so big. It's the first brand-new Grand Theft Auto game in 13 years, and it swaps the blocky, low-res cities of the early 2000s games for a sprawling, near-lifelike take on Vice City and the surrounding state of Leonida, packed with crowded streets, beaches, and swamps.
As GTA has become more sophisticated, home internet has gotten faster too. The median U.S. fixed download speed has more than doubled since the GTA Trilogy came out in 2021, from about 134 Mbps to 314.35 Mbps as of September, per Speedtest data. But GTA 6 is more than five times the Trilogy’s size, so it will still take roughly twice as long to download. Luckily, pre-loading opens November 12, a week before launch. Run a Speedtest before you start so you know what speeds to expect.
Check out our infographic to see roughly how long five major GTA downloads have taken since 2008, when GTA IV became the first new GTA fans could download on launch day. Download times are estimates based on file size and typical U.S. speeds. Click the infographic below to download a high-resolution PDF.
Run a Speedtest on GTA 6 Launch Night
GTA 6 is expected to be one of the biggest game launches ever, with millions of players downloading 210 GB at the same time. Fiber and cable networks have far more bandwidth than they did in 2008, so they can carry more traffic. But launch-night demand can still cause congestion on game servers and home networks.
Games download from content delivery networks (CDNs), which store copies of a game on servers around the world. The closer a CDN server is to you, the faster your download tends to be. Some internet providers are getting ready for big launches. Comcast, for example, recently announced plans to cache blockbuster game downloads inside its own network, so players can download them from locations closer to home.
Want to make sure your connection is ready for launch night? Here's how:
Get your baseline. Run a Speedtest before you start downloading.
Check mid-download. If your download slows, run another Speedtest. If your speed is close to your baseline, the slowdown is likely on the game's servers. If it's well below, the issue is likely on your end.
Check Downdetector. See if other players are reporting problems with GTA 6, PlayStation Network, the Xbox network, or Rockstar.
Share your results. Post your Speedtest results and tell us how launch night went.
Pre-loading opens November 12, so start early, run a Speedtest, and we'll see you in Vice City!
