"The biggest competitor to Grand Theft Auto VI will be Grand Theft Auto V," says industry analyst

With old games sticking around for years and sometimes decades, it's becoming tricky to shift a new experience to mass amounts of players.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to shift new video games onto consumers. At least, that's the take of industry analyst Mat Piscatella of Circana, who believes that 2026's biggest release could be impeded by its predecessor.

Speaking with Gamesindustry.biz and as caught by Videogamer, Piscatella argues that with older games continuing to stick around years after they first launched, it's tricky for new games to make a splash nowadays.

"Grand Theft Auto V launched in 2013. It's still one of the top 20 bestselling games every single month," he said. "The biggest competitor to Grand Theft Auto VI will be Grand Theft Auto V."

Grand Theft Auto V continues to sell incredibly well for a game of its age, and has sold well over 200 million copies since its launch. With Grand Theft Auto VI not coming to PC at release, either, we can expect to see GTA V remain relevant even when its bigger, better brother arrives next year.

Grand Theft Auto VI will release on the 26th of May, 2026 for Xbox Series X/S and PS5.