GTA VI shows itself again with 12 new official screenshots

Rockstar picked Game Informer for one of its last big reveals before launch: a fourteen-page cover story in issue 382, live digitally since September 29, 2026, with twelve never-before-seen screenshots of Grand Theft Auto VI. The images take us further out of Vice City than any previous material: hunting, swamps, farmland, storms. And the text around them puts two figures on the record that had only circulated as hearsay: the scale of the map and the number of animal species.

The twelve screenshots, one by one

The choice of images already tells you where Rockstar wants attention seven weeks out: not on the story, which barely features, but on how varied and busy the state of Leonida is. Eight of the twelve shots have no lead character in frame. These are the screenshots distributed with Game Informer’s cover story, which signs them with its watermark in the bottom-right corner: Rockstar’s media library, checked again on October 12, 2026, does not include them, and here we publish them with a strip trimmed off the bottom to remove it. You will find them in the galleries of the wiki pages linked below.

Vice City and the coast

• Downtown at dusk. Vice City from above, with searchlights rising from the Sahara Arena (the game’s version of the Miami Heat’s arena), a Ferris wheel and the marina. It is the shot at the top of this page.
• Jason and Lucia at the beach. The two on sun loungers, her pointing at something off screen, while a man runs behind them with the American flag and what looks very much like a bald eagle walks across the sand in the foreground.
• The storm over the Keys. A seaplane over the islands of the Leonida Keys: sunshine on the water, a dark front throwing lightning on the horizon. Localized weather in a single frame.

Inland and the wild

• The marsh at sunrise. Almost certainly the Grassrivers: a deer, a crane, a roseate spoonbill, a few storks and an alligator in the reeds.
• The hunter on the quad. A man with a slung rifle watches two deer at a stream. He is shot from behind: there is no telling whether it is Jason or a passerby. Everything known about hunting is on its own page.
• The dock at night. A stilt house in the swamp, two men next to an airboat and at least three alligators in the water.
• The biplane over the field. A crop duster kicks up dust over a few workers, next to a pickup marked “Tuckers”; behind the water tower a skyline is visible.
• The waterfall. Hikers with a dog on a wooden bridge between rock walls: the landscape furthest from flat Florida ever shown, which points to Mount Kalaga. More on the hiking page.

Jason, Lucia and the bikers

• The chopper getaway. Jason, bandana over his face and pistol in hand, on a chrome chopper as bikers run out of a wooden roadhouse.
• The biker bar. A bearded biker in a patched vest, a woman with her arms around him, two more at the pool table: very likely the same crew.
• The baseball bat. Jason in a souvenir shop, the register open and full of bills, the clerk on the floor behind him.
• Lucia on overwatch. Lucia, red bandana and assault rifle, crouched behind a barrel while an armed group negotiates by two pickups.

The map is roughly twice GTA 5, and this time Rockstar says it

This is the piece of information that shifts the picture most. Aaron Garbut of Rockstar North describes Leonida as the biggest world the studio has ever built “by some degree”, roughly twice the size of GTA V’s map and far more detailed. For Garbut, the point is that everything went up at once: normally you trade scale for detail or detail for interaction, and here they did not.

Before the cover story, the GTA 5 comparison was the weakest number in circulation, because it came from creators’ accounts rather than from the studio. Now it has a name attached. Two caveats remain, explained in the guide on how big the map is: “roughly twice” is a ratio, not an area in square kilometers, and even for GTA 5 the measurements change depending on whether you count the water.

The cover story restates the six known regions: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga. The region-by-region summary is in our map of the confirmed regions.

Hurricanes, and weather that changes region by region

Rockstar builds on Red Dead Redemption 2’s weather system but makes it local: different parts of the map can have very different conditions at the same moment, and weather fronts move from one region to the next. That is how Florida weather actually behaves, and it is why the press keeps coming back to hurricanes: they are confirmed. The screenshots show a thunderstorm with lightning over the islands, not an actual hurricane.

How often a hurricane rolls in, and whether it changes anything for the player (closed roads, paused activities, missions shifting), the cover story does not say. We will find out in game.

More than 170 animal species

Game Informer reports more than 170 species across land, air and sea: over 60 kinds of birds, more than 30 land mammals, plus fish and reptiles. The names mentioned include alligators, manatees, flamingos and pelicans among native species, and among invasive ones green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats and even rhesus macaques; at sea, according to VGC’s summary, sharks, whales and jellyfish. It is wildlife picked from the real Florida, invasive species included, which is why half the screenshots look like a nature documentary.

Side activities

The cover story extends the list of things to do away from missions: airboats, base jumping, billiards, gyms, jet skis, mini golf, scuba diving and snorkeling, street and off-road racing, zoos. They add to the ones already seen in the August 27 Extended Look, such as kayaking, parachuting and the shooting range, and to hunting, which one of the screenshots shows for the first time.

What does not change

Release stays set for November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The cover story adds nothing on the plot, the PC version or GTA 6 Online: it is a piece about the game world, and should be read as one.

In short

• Game Informer issue 382, from September 29, 2026: fourteen pages on GTA VI and twelve never-seen official screenshots.
• The shots focus on the world: hunting, swamps, farmland, Vice City at dusk, a thunderstorm over the islands; Jason and Lucia appear in four.
• Rockstar confirms the map is roughly twice the size of GTA 5, the biggest world the studio has built.
• Weather goes local: different regions with different conditions at the same time, hurricanes included.
• More than 170 animal species, with over 60 kinds of birds and more than 30 land mammals.
• Release stays November 19, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I see the new GTA 6 screenshots?

In the cover story of Game Informer issue 382, available digitally since September 29, 2026. Rockstar made it free in the magazine’s app; the print edition follows in the weeks after.

How many new screenshots are there?

Twelve, all official and supplied by Rockstar. They accompany fourteen pages of developer interviews: nearly all of them also appear in the galleries of the wiki pages on characters, locations, animals and activities.

Is the GTA 6 map really twice the size of GTA 5’s?

According to Rockstar, roughly twice. Aaron Garbut of Rockstar North says so in the cover story. It is a ratio between the two maps, not an area in square kilometers, which the studio has not published.

Are there hurricanes in GTA 6?

Yes, they are confirmed. Weather is localized: different parts of Leonida can have different conditions at the same moment, and weather fronts move from one region to the next.

How many animals are in GTA 6?

More than 170 species according to Game Informer, including over 60 kinds of birds and more than 30 land mammals, plus fish, reptiles and marine life.

Can you hunt in GTA 6?

Everything points that way. One of the twelve screenshots shows a hunter with a rifle on a quad bike watching two deer, but he is shot from behind: you cannot tell whether it is Jason or a non-player character.