Multiplayer Mode

The multiplayer mode of Grand Theft Auto V launched on 1 October 2013, two weeks after the base game, and supports up to 30 players in one shared version of San Andreas on every platform except PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was designed as a separate experience in a continually evolving world.

How a session works

Players roam the world together and enter lobbies to complete jobs, which are story-driven competitive and cooperative modes. The Content Creator toolset lets players build their own jobs, including race tracks and deathmatch weapon spawn points. Player teams are called crews, and the Rockstar Games Social Club extends crews first formed in the multiplayer mode of Max Payne 3 into this game. A player can create a crew of his own and join up to five crews in total. Crews earn experience points by winning matches and climb leaderboards.

What players do

Players can explore alone or with friends, work through cooperative missions, join activities and ambient events, or compete in traditional game modes. The mode comes bundled with the retail copy of the game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and its features link to the Rockstar Games Social Club. The story mode takes place in 2013, eight years before the multiplayer mode's The Contract update.

Player counts by platform

Sessions on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 held up to 16 concurrent players. All other versions, meaning PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, allow up to 30.

A rough launch

Many players reported connection problems and lock-ups during load screens at launch. Rockstar released a technical patch on 5 October. In the second week some players found their character progress had vanished, and another patch followed on 10 October. As compensation, Rockstar credited GTA$500,000 of in-game currency to the account of every player who had connected since launch. Because of these issues many reviewers criticised their first experience, yet they generally praised the open-ended exploration and the dynamic content.

Content updates and heists

Rockstar adds content through title updates at no cost. Some add game modes and features, while others are themed, like the Independence Day Special on 1 July 2014, which brought patriotic content. The widely anticipated Heists update arrived on 10 March 2015 and had early technical difficulties from the higher user load. Multiplayer heists are separate from the story heists described in heists and crews. Since the story mode stopped receiving new content, all later updates have focused on the multiplayer side.

Expansion and standalone release

A standalone edition of the multiplayer mode was released on 15 March 2022 alongside the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S versions, and it was available at no cost on PlayStation 5 for the first three months. Players who want the story mode can buy it as an add-on. The map originally matched the story map and was later expanded with the island of Cayo Perico.

Reception over time

The mode won Best Multiplayer from GameTrailers and from BAFTA, and it was also nominated for biggest disappointment by Game Revolution and Hardcore Gamer. When the game was re-released in 2014, IGN reported low player counts in matches, long lobby waits, server disconnection and occasional crashes, while VideoGamer.com found character progression streamlined and judged the mode balanced and friendly to newcomers. Game Informer reported minimal lag in expanded firefights and races.

Staying power

By late 2023, Barron's reported that the game was earning over $500 million a year with about 22 million monthly active players. The Diamond Casino and Resort update won Best Game Expansion at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, and the mode has been nominated for the Still Playing award at that ceremony several times.

PC editions and mods

PC players have two versions with separate multiplayer sessions. The Legacy version keeps the original game, and the Enhanced version adds ray tracing and other upgrades. The two versions cannot play together. PC players can sign up for GTA+ Membership for special benefits in the upgraded version. Single-player mods are unauthorised according to Rockstar and can cause technical problems and instability. In 2015 Rockstar stated that nobody had been banned from the multiplayer mode for using single-player mods, but that a PC update had made some of them unplayable. More about the two PC versions is on the version history page.