What the Game Informer Cover Story Confirmed: a Map Twice GTA V’s Size, Six Regions and Hurricanes

The map: roughly twice GTA V

Aaron Garbut, who leads development at Rockstar North, told Game Informer that Leonida is roughly twice the size of GTA V’s map, and denser, with more interiors than any previous GTA. “We obsessed about every part,” he said, listing rooftops, alleys and interiors among the details the team worked on.

This is the first official size comparison Rockstar has given. Our map size page collected the earlier estimates; this number now replaces them as the reference point.

Six regions, officially named

Senior vice president Rupert Humphries described the story as the thread that pulls players across the map, with the contrast between rich and poor communities at the centre of it. More on the setting: Map & setting and Leonida vs Florida.

Weather: local, persistent, sometimes violent

• The weather system was rebuilt, drawing on Red Dead Redemption 2’s technology.
• It is localised: it can be sunny in one part of the map and raining in another.
• It is persistent: wet surfaces and puddles stay after the rain, and wind moves hair, debris and plants.
• Tropical storms and hurricanes can hit Leonida. Rainbows too.

Wildlife: more than 170 species

Leonida has over 170 animal species, including more than 60 kinds of bird and over 30 land mammals, plus marine life. Rockstar says the animals render effects such as iridescence and bioluminescence, with fur and feathers reacting to the environment.

People, police and play

• Jason and Lucia. Their relationship can stay close friendship or turn romantic, shaped by small interactions and by the jobs you pull together. It affects the story; Game Informer’s coverage says it does not hand out gameplay bonuses. See Characters.
• Police. The six-star wanted level stays, alongside a Heat system in which police work from your appearance and last known location — so changing clothes, switching cars or splitting up matters. See Wanted system.
• NPCs. Characters get varied body types and skin detail, and styles that differ across Leonida’s regions.
• Activities. Named in the feature: base jumping, scuba diving, jet skiing, kayaking, air boating and zoo visits, several of them usable as dates.
• Getting around. RydeMe, an in-game ride-hailing app, works as fast travel, with interactions during the ride.

What we still do not know

• Final install size — no word.
• GTA Online for GTA VI — no word beyond what came out of the tribunal. See GTA Online.
• A PC version — no word. See PC release date.

Launch is still 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Countdown.