GTA 6 is rated M and PEGI 18. What the ratings say is in it, and the descriptor that is missing
Seven content descriptors in the US, an R18+ in Australia that names sex scenes, a withdrawn PEGI page, and no gambling label for the first time in a Rockstar open world on PS5.
By Wes Calloway
Grand Theft Auto 6 has its age ratings. They showed up on Rockstar's site and the US PlayStation and Xbox store listings around 1 October, and the headline won't surprise anyone: Mature 17+ in North America, PEGI 18 in Europe and the UK, R18+ in Australia and New Zealand. Germany's USK rating hasn't been widely reported yet.
The detail underneath is more useful, whether you're a parent deciding if it comes into the house or a player reading the labels for clues.
The seven ESRB descriptors
Rockstar's own launch trailer page lists seven:
- Blood and Gore
- Intense Violence
- Mature Humor
- Nudity
- Strong Language
- Strong Sexual Content
- Use of Drugs and Alcohol
Plus the In-Game Purchases notice. They're the same seven GTA 5 carried, so on paper it doesn't go any further than the last game. The launch trailer gives you an idea where Strong Sexual Content comes from: there's a shower scene between Jason and Lucia in it, and Australia's PlayStation Store listing names sex scenes alongside drug use and high impact violence.
What the withdrawn PEGI page said
PEGI publishes a longer written summary for a lot of games, and one went up for GTA 6 before being taken down. Dexerto reported what was in it before it disappeared: detailed decapitation and dismemberment, the ability to carry cocaine and take it from your hand at any time, and animals that can be hurt but without the injury detail applied to people.
We haven't seen the page ourselves, and a withdrawn page may have been withdrawn because it was wrong. So treat those three details as reported, and we can't tell you yet whether that text was accurate.
No gambling label this time
This is the line players have fixed on. None of the GTA 6 classifications showing right now carries a gambling descriptor. Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Online and the PS5 release of GTA 5 all do, and GTA 5's casino, with its poker, blackjack and roulette, is the reason.
The cautious reading is that the base game has no casino-style betting. That doesn't prove every form of betting is gone, though. A rating covers what was submitted, and Rockstar's already said there's no GTA Online at launch. Whatever an online mode ends up including would get rated when it arrives, and nobody knows yet what that rating will be.
What In-Game Purchases actually means here
This one gets misread every time. The ESRB puts it on any purchase of digital content from inside the game, from a currency shop down to an upgrade path. Rockstar's said there are no microtransactions in the single player, and the two things fit together fine: the Ultimate Edition can be bought as an upgrade whenever you like, which is exactly the sort of thing the label's there to flag.
If you're a parent
An M rating is a recommendation in the US and a legal age limit in the UK and much of Europe, where a shop can't sell a PEGI 18 game to anyone under eighteen. Both consoles have parental controls that can block any game above an age rating you choose.
What the labels don't show is how much of this is optional. Rockstar games put most of their violence in the player's hands, but the story content is fixed. Expect the cutscenes to carry the sexual content and the drug use whether you go looking for it or not.
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