The first GTA 6 screenshot has leaked, or at least that’s what some Grand Theft Auto fans think has happened. A few days ago, an anonymous source took to the Internet and shared what is sold as the first-ever screenshot of GTA 6. Given the sheer amount of fake leaks the Grand Theft Auto community is bombarded with, many quickly wrote off the screenshot, but since then, many have revisited the leak and are starting to believe it may be genuine, partially due to its link to a recently leaked map of the game.
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Over on Reddit, it’s revealed that the city pictured in the leak is Miami, or at least Grand Theft Auto’s fictional take on the Florida city, as it’s not a one-for-one recreation, but the similarities between the screenshot and North Miami Beach are too many to ignore. According to a bulk of leaks, rumors, and even reputable reports, Vice City will be the main location of the game. In other words, if this is a fake, the leaker at least did their homework. In fact, they really did the homework, as the sun and shadows match up exactly for where Miami would be, with the sun to the south, and the plane flying northeast. The sky also has Red Dead Redemption 2’s cloud system.
“Went on Google Maps and started looking up and down North Miami Beach and what do you know? I’ve identified some of the buildings we see in front, along with a few other details,” reads an analysis of the leak on Reddit. “It’s typically compressed in GTA fashion so not a 1:1 recreation.”
Building upon this, it’s theorized that this was taken from a playtest of sorts, as it says “xxxstatroam” right above the minimap and “ov-jespero” right beneath it. Perhaps adding to the credibility of the leak, it’s also pointed out that minimap “bears a strong resemblance” to the Red Dead Redemption 2 map when it was leaked before reveal. In fact, there’s a lot of similarities between recent GTA 6 leaks and that Red Dead Redemption 2 leak. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
For now, take everything here with a grain of salt. While there are reasons to believe now that both the first screenshot of the game and its map have leaked, it doesn’t change the fact that everything here is unofficial and subject to change. Further, it’s not impossible for “leakers” to go above and beyond in a “leak” to fool everyone. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
At the moment of publishing, Rockstar Games hasn’t commented on either the map leak or the screenshot leak or any of the speculation they have created. We don’t expect this to change as it never comments on leaks and speculation, but if it does comment, we will update the story accordingly.
