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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsRelease order and story chronology are different: games such as Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories came out after the stories they depict. Below are all the distinct main-series games and major story expansions in original release order, followed by a setting-based timeline split into the series’ separate continuities.
Grand Theft Auto games in release order
This list uses each game or major story expansion’s original release year. It does not count later ports, remasters, or compilations as new entries. Rockstar describes Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition as a compilation of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, not as a separate game.
- Grand Theft Auto — 1997
- Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 — 1999; expansion
- Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 — 1999; free expansion
- Grand Theft Auto 2 — 1999
- Grand Theft Auto III — 2001. Rockstar gives October 22, 2001, as its original release date.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — 2002. Rockstar lists October 27, 2002.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — 2004
- Grand Theft Auto Advance — 2004
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories — 2005
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories — 2006
- Grand Theft Auto IV — 2008. Rockstar lists April 29, 2008.
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned — 2009; story expansion
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars — 2009. Rockstar lists March 17, 2009.
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony — 2009; story expansion
- Grand Theft Auto V — 2013
- Grand Theft Auto Online — launched in 2013; an ongoing online game that has continued to receive updates, rather than a one-time story release
This is a practical year-by-year overview, not a territory-by-territory launch ledger. Exact release days can vary by region and platform, particularly for early releases and handheld games. The dates given as exact days above are the dates Rockstar lists for those specific titles.
Grand Theft Auto games in chronological story order
The franchise has separate 2D, 3D, and HD continuities. Treat these as distinct timelines rather than one connected canon. This commonly used chronology draws on secondary series references; the placement of GTA 2 is disputed, and GTA Online does not have one fixed story year.
#1 Best Overall
- Grand Theft Auto III: It all starts in Liberty City. With the revolutionary freedom to go anywhere and jack anyone, Grand Theft Auto III puts the center of the criminal underworld at your fingertips, if you have enough guts to take it.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Welcome to the 1980s. From the decade of big hair and pastel suits comes the story of one man's rise to the top of the criminal pile.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Five years ago, Carl 'CJ' Johnson escaped the haze of Los Santos, San Andreas...a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs, and corruption.
2D continuity
- Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 — 1961
- Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 — 1969
- Grand Theft Auto — set in a 1997-era world
- Grand Theft Auto 2 — its setting year is unresolved. It is often placed around 1999, while some interpretations point to 2013; neither should be treated as a definitive date.
3D continuity
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories — 1984
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — 1986
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — 1992
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories — 1998
- Grand Theft Auto Advance — 2000
- Grand Theft Auto III — 2001
HD continuity
- Grand Theft Auto V prologue — 2004
- Grand Theft Auto IV and its overlapping episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony — 2008
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars — 2009
- Grand Theft Auto V main story — 2013
- Grand Theft Auto Online — its events move through later years as the online game is updated, so the service as a whole cannot be assigned one fixed place in the timeline
Why the two orders differ
Release order tracks when each distinct game or major expansion first came out. Chronological order tracks the years represented by its story, and applies only within the continuity to which a game belongs. That is why Vice City Stories (1984) precedes Vice City (1986) in the 3D timeline despite releasing later, and why Liberty City Stories (1998) comes before GTA III (2001) in that same continuity.
The HD timeline also includes a split within one game: GTA V opens with a 2004 prologue, before the 2008 events of GTA IV, then moves to its main story in 2013. The episodes for GTA IV overlap with one another and the base game’s 2008 story, so they belong together rather than forming a simple before-and-after sequence.
Rank #2
- Grand Theft Auto III: It all starts in Liberty City
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Welcome to the 1980s
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Five years ago, Carl 'CJ' Johnson escaped the haze of Los Santos, San Andreas...a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs, and corruption.
What counts as a separate entry
The release list includes the two London expansions, the two major GTA IV story episodes, and GTA Online as a continuing online game. It leaves out later platform releases and re-releases of existing titles. The Definitive Edition’s three games—GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas—are already represented by their original entries above, not counted again as a new installment.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Grand Theft Auto III: It all starts in Liberty City. With the revolutionary freedom to go anywhere and jack anyone, Grand Theft Auto III puts the center of the criminal underworld at your fingertips, if you have enough guts to take it.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Welcome to the 1980s. From the decade of big hair and pastel suits comes the story of one man's rise to the top of the criminal pile. Grand Theft Auto returns with Tommy Vercetti’s tale of betrayal and revenge in a neon-soaked tropical town full of excess and brimming with possibilities.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Five years ago, Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson escaped the haze of Los Santos, San Andreas...a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs, and corruption. Now, it's the early 90s. CJ’s got to go home - his mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart, and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster.
Rank #4
Rank #3
- Grand Theft Auto III: It all starts in Liberty City
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Welcome to the 1980s
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Five years ago, Carl 'CJ' Johnson escaped the haze of Los Santos, San Andreas...a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs, and corruption.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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