Grounded speculation based on a decade of lessons from GTA Online and Red Dead Online.
This article contains speculation. Nothing here has been confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two.
GTA Online has been one of the most successful entertainment products in history. It has also been one of the most criticized. The question everyone asks is whether Rockstar will use GTA 6 as an opportunity to fix what people dislike about the current online experience.
The biggest complaints about GTA Online have remained remarkably consistent over ten years: grinding, pay-to-win elements, and a punishing economy that pushes players toward Shark Cards.
Red Dead Online showed that Rockstar can learn from criticism — but it also showed that they sometimes abandon online modes when they don’t meet internal expectations. The future of GTA’s online component is the single highest-stakes question for the franchise’s long-term health.
The most probable path is evolutionary rather than revolutionary: a new online mode built on the same fundamental loop, with better onboarding, more meaningful progression, and tighter integration with the single-player world and characters.
Whether this new mode will eventually replace the current GTA Online or exist alongside it for years remains one of the most important unanswered questions in gaming.
GTA Online has generated more revenue than most entire game franchises. Take-Two’s investors are heavily counting on the next version of this experience to drive growth for years after GTA 6 launches. This puts enormous pressure on the team to get it right — both in terms of player enjoyment and monetization sustainability.
The smartest move for Rockstar would be to use the lessons from both the successes and failures of the current GTA Online and Red Dead Online to build something that feels fresh while still delivering the fantasy players love. Whether they execute on that remains to be seen.