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GTA 6 is just several months away and as we don’t know anything about the next iteration of GTA Online that will come with it, there are plenty of things up in the air. Data published today shows GTA Online in its current form has a terrible retention rate. What does this mean? Let’s take a look.
In a new report from Ampere Analysis via The Game Business titled Winning Attention & Defining Cultural Moments: Key forces shaping console/PC games in 2026, we get some interesting insights into GTA Online data and the market’s view on GTA 6.
There’s a segment in the report called “Grand Theft Auto VI: 2026’s biggest entertainment event”. It asks a big question: What does GTA V audience behaviour tell us about GTA VI’s potential impact?
GTA Online Player Counts
According to the data firm, GTA V/GTA Online gained 3.7 million more monthly active users in December 2025. That is a 29% increase month over month. These numbers are Xbox and PlayStation only and no PC numbers are accounted for.
The boost was thanks to the highly anticipated A Safehouse in the Hills update that arrived for GTA Online in that month. This led to some GTA Online players to not play games like Battlefield 6, Fortnite, Call of Duty, Skate, Minecraft and Roblox in that month.
A Win For Red Dead Online
There was a portion of players who left Red Dead Redemption 2/Red Dead Online for GTA Online that month. However, something interesting happened. More people attracted more players in January 2026 than those that left in December 2025. That’s quite impressive. It shows that people who enjoyed GTA Online also felt like they wanted to return to Red Dead Online after the GTAO update.
GTA Online Retention Is Very Low
In contrast, GTA V/GTA Online has one of the worst retention rates in live service games according to Ampere. Based on the data shown in the report, GTA Online retention is always double digits lower than Fortnite and Roblox. This brings GTA 6 Online into question…
Other data shows that GTA Online players leave the game on drastic levels. For example, of the 20 million players of GTA Online in April, only 29% continued playing in half a year later in October. The player count for April was not the same percentage lower either. It had 14.9m players. This shows GTA Online players typically do not stick around for very long and move onto other games quick in comparison to other established live service games.
A more recent cound from April 2026 shows there were just 25% of players from the prior year still taking part in the game. That is is a 4% drop from the 6 months before. It even had 16m players in April; a rise from October. The low drop off after the second half year period shows most players burn out of GTA Online quicker than other games.
Can GTA VI Fair Better?
Sure, GTA Online is approaching 13 years of live service so naturally interest will be lower. There are still questions if GTA 6 can buck this trend. In the few months after release, of course it will be doing very well. It is about the long term.
A lot of people have already spent over a decade playing GTA Online. Are they down to spend another decade playing a new version of it? We’ll have to wait and see how Rockstar will be innovating in this space.
We highly recommend checking out the full report from Ampere for yourself. It will give a lot more understanding on the state of the industry and how Grand Theft Auto 6 will impact it.
In related news, we have data on GTA and Red Dead downloads and more recent player count numbers. Check out our article here.
To keep up to date with every GTA and Red Dead news update, make sure to check back to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games.
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