Most of them say they were underage the first time they did so
Key takeaways
- 9% of Britons say they are “very likely” to play Grand Theft Auto 6 at some point, rising to 34% among men under 35
- One in three Britons (33%) have ever played a Grand Theft Auto game before
- Most (63%) were under the series’ age limit of 18 the first time they did so
- GTA players are most likely to have played GTA 5 (53%), San Andreas (53%) or Vice City (52%)
- GTA players are most likely to pick GTA 5 as their favourite game from the series (33%), with 18% picking San Andreas and 17% Vice City
- Survey also explored how many take part in classic GTA activities like trying to block trains, getting the highest ‘wanted level’ possible, and trying to ride around on top of NPC cars
Grand Theft Auto 6 is launching on 19 November and is set to be the video game event of the year – if not the decade. More than ten years after the last game in the series was released, data tracking firm Sensor Tower have estimated that 7.71 million digital copies have been pre-ordered worldwide, amounting to $630 million in net revenue.
New YouGov research shows that one in eleven Britons (9%) say they are “very likely” to play GTA 6 once it’s been released, with a further 8% saying they are “fairly likely” to do so. The number of very likely players rises to 15% among men, and 34% among men under the age of 35 specifically – as well as 21% of men aged 35-49.
But how many Britons have ever interacted with the series before? And what kind of things do they get up to in the famously free-form game?
How many Britons have played Grand Theft Auto?
One in three Britons (33%) say they have ever played a Grand Theft Auto game, a figure that reaches 51-55% among the under-50 age groups, and 73-76% among under-50 men specifically.
Three titles stand out at the top of the list, with 53% of those who have ever played a game from the series having played GTA 5 – the most recent offering – and an identical number having played 2004’s GTA: San Andreas. A further 52% have also played 2002’s GTA: Vice City.
Further down the list, 41% played the original Grand Theft Auto, while around one in three have played GTA 3 (36%) and GTA 4 (34%). Slightly fewer (30%) have played GTA 2.
Having played spin-offs Liberty City Stories (18%) or Vice City Stories (15%) is far less common, and fewer still have encountered the handheld-only offerings Chinatown Wars (8%) or GTA Advance (4%).
When it comes to players’ favourite incarnation of the series, GTA 5 stands out on top, with 33% of GTA players picking it as their favourite (or it being the only one they have played). San Andreas and Vice City come in a more distant second and third on 18% and 17% respectively.
There is a clear age divide, however. While most GTA players under the age of 35 pick GTA 5 as their favourite game (53%), among 35-49 year olds the results are more divided. These older players are most likely to pick Vice City as their favourite GTA game, at 25%, with GTA 5 coming in at 20%, and San Andreas at 18%.
Grand Theft Auto’s ongoing relevance 13 years after the last game was released owes much to Grand Theft Auto Online, the online multiplayer mode of GTA 5, with leaked Rockstar reports suggesting that 10 million people are still playing worldwide every week.
Nevertheless, most of those who played GTA 5 were primarily in it for the single-player experience, with 58% saying they played the single-player story a large or very large amount. This contrasts with only 22% saying the same of the game’s online multiplayer mode, and in fact 27% of GTA 5 players say they never played it online.
This may be reassuring to Rockstar, as GTA 6 is initially launching without a multiplayer mode, although it is widely expected that they will introduce one at some point. Indeed, our data shows that only 8% of those who say they are likely to play GTA 6 in the future are most interested in multiplayer, compared to 63% who are primarily concerned with the single-player game (26% say both equally).
Most people played Grand Theft Auto for the first time while underage
GTA is a notoriously 18+ rated game series, however our research shows that fully 63% of players were below this age when they played it for the first time – indeed, 53% were 15 or younger, and 20% were younger than 12 at the time.
What kind of fun have GTA players been making for themselves in the open world game?
Grand Theft Auto pioneered the open world genre of video games, giving players the freedom to roam around a large environment and create their own fun, rather than simply taking part in a strictly scripted series of game missions.
So, left to their own devices, what have GTA players been getting up to?
In a surprisingly wholesome twist for the famously violent crime game, the activity from our list of 12 that GTA players are most likely to have done is trying to perfectly abide by traffic laws (63%).
Admittedly, this is within the margin of error of the next most popular pastime: players going on a rampage and trying to see how much damage they could cause before being taken down by an escalating series of law enforcement responders (61%). Around half of GTA players (51%) likewise say they have deliberately caused a traffic jam in order to blow up the vehicles.
Another activity that most GTA players (54%) have gravitated towards of their own accord is trying to hurl themselves or their vehicle off the highest point of the map, a move Rockstar has facilitated with the presence of parachute backpacks in key locations like the Gant Bridge and Mount Chiliad.
Bothering NPCs is a common activity as well: 47% have hung around to eavesdrop on NPC pedestrian conversations, while 44% have stalked an NPC to see what they get up to. Some take things further, with 48% having tried to see how long they can ‘surf’ on top of a moving vehicle for, 43% launching vendettas against NPCs who crashed into their car, and 32% goading NPCs into attacking them so GTA’s trigger-happy police would shoot them.
Another classic of the genre – trying to stop a train by putting vehicles in its path – has been attempted by 42% of players.
At the bottom of our list is perhaps the darkest activity, with 28% of players saying they had sex with a prostitute in order to restore their health, and then killed them to get their money back.
Methodology
- Sample size: An online survey of 8,548 adults aged 18+ living in Great Britain
- Fieldwork: 27 October -10 November 2026; survey was run over four waves, with some questions only present on certain waves
- Commissioned by: YouGov
Click here for more information about how we carry out research
Interested in taking YouGov surveys? What do you think about Grand Theft Auto 6, video games in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Interested in commissioning YouGov research? We connect in real-time with real people around the world to gather their thoughts, behaviours, and opinions, to ensure that our research data is powered by reality. Explore our survey services here.
Photo: Getty
