GTA 6 news
What to do first in GTA 6: a launch-day checklist
Published 7 September 2026. Last updated 24 September 2026. By the Vice Roulette team.
GTA 6 arrives 19 November 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Every item below comes from outlets' coverage of the gameplay reveal. Rockstar's own GTA VI site, checked on 24 September 2026, has no list of activities; it names or shows eleven of the items below, and the rest are expected, not confirmed. Nothing here needs an online mode, and Rockstar has announced none for launch. Tick items off as you go; your progress saves in your own browser only, nowhere else.
Before you press start
Take thirty seconds for a settings pass first: camera preference, difficulty options if the game offers them, and whichever button captures a screenshot or clip on your platform — you'll want it before the first good moment, not after. One thing worth knowing going in: no PC release has been dated, so if you were waiting for one, there's nothing to wait for yet.
Hour one: the first five things
If you want a starting order rather than an open list, these five cover a broad slice of what's been reported inside one sitting, roughly in the order most people naturally reach them.
Carjack the first vehicle you see. It's the fastest way to get moving, and taking cars has been at the heart of every GTA game — no need to save it for later. Get yourself to the coast. Take a photo of whatever's actually in frame rather than waiting for a "photo mode moment" — the ordinary streets are usually more interesting on a first look than anything staged. Find a nightclub once night falls and stay for a set; clubbing with tipping is one of the more distinctive activities outlets have reported, so stay rather than passing through. Do something that gets the police chasing you, then actually try to lose them rather than surrendering immediately — it's the fastest way to learn how the world reacts to you before you've committed to anything longer.
The checklist
Twenty-five items, five groups, every one from outlets' coverage of the gameplay reveal, and eleven of them also named or shown on Rockstar's own site. Tick a box and it stays ticked the next time you load this page, saved in your own browser's local storage rather than an account anywhere, so nobody but you ever sees your progress.
On foot
On water
On wheels
Sports and downtime
Trouble
Spin a GTA 5 dare right now if you want a warm-up run before launch day actually arrives — the mechanics above translate directly.
Where the checklist comes from
It would be easy to pad a launch-day list with things that sound plausible for a GTA game — a casino, a property empire, a flight lesson — and most of those guesses would probably land right eventually. But "probably" isn't good enough for a list you're meant to actually use on day one: if half the items turn out not to exist, you've wasted real time in the game checking. Every item above is something outlets covering the gameplay reveal have named, not a reasonable guess about what a GTA game usually has. Rockstar's own GTA VI site names or shows eleven of them (fishing, hunting, dirt bikes, jet skis, kayaking, scuba diving, an airboat, mini golf, a gym, a club with dancers around a pole and a police chase) but gives no list of activities, so treat the list as expected, not confirmed, until the game is out.
What this list leaves out (so you don't waste day one)
Tennis is left out: nothing on Rockstar's site says it is playable, so don't go looking for a match, and don't assume every visible piece of scenery doubles as an activity just because it looks like one. No online mode has been announced for launch: Rockstar's pre-order press release says GTA VI "features a single-player experience", so plan day one without one. Casinos and property empires are unconfirmed one way or the other, and Rockstar's site shows a seaplane without saying you can fly it — leave them off your list until Rockstar actually says something, rather than assuming a franchise staple automatically carries over this time.
A region-by-region route
If you'd rather explore than tick boxes in order, do one thing in each of the six regions Rockstar's own site names instead of working the list top to bottom: a nightclub in Vice City, a jet ski in the Leonida Keys, an airboat through Grassrivers, a drive along Port Gellhorn's coast, a dirt bike in Ambrosia, and a hunt or a swim in Mount Kalaga National Park. That's six of the twenty-five items above, spread across the whole map rather than clustered near wherever you start — a reasonable shape for a first session if you'd rather see the state than sit still in one corner of it. See the full region-by-region breakdown for what Rockstar's own site says about each before you go, and what it doesn't, including travel between them.
Is this a 100% completion list?
No — and it isn't trying to be. A real completion checklist needs the game's own tracked collectibles, side-mission counts and completion percentages, none of which exist yet and won't until players have actually spent time with the finished game. This is a launch-day starter list built from what has been reported so far: a way to have something concrete to do in your first few hours rather than wandering with no plan. Once GTA 6 is out and a real completion list exists, treat this page as the warm-up, not the whole race.
Turn the checklist into a dare run
If ticking boxes in order feels too tidy, let the GTA challenge generator pick for you instead — set it to Menace difficulty and spin through the Chaos and Wheels categories for a rougher, less orderly version of the same first few hours. It won't have GTA 6 dares until the game is actually out, but every mechanic above already exists in the chaos dares built for GTA 5.
FAQ
What should you do first in GTA 6?
Something small and immediate — carjack a vehicle, get to the coast, take a photo. This checklist gives you 25 activities from coverage of the previews, across five groups, so you're never standing around deciding on launch day itself.
Is tennis in GTA 6?
Rockstar's own site doesn't say, so it isn't on this list.
Can you play GTA 6 online at launch?
Not as far as Rockstar has said: its pre-order press release of 24 June 2026 says GTA VI "features a single-player experience", and no online mode has been announced. This checklist is built entirely around single-player activities.
What side activities has Rockstar confirmed for GTA 6?
None as a list. Rockstar's own GTA VI site, checked on 24 September 2026, names hunting, fishing and dirt bikes and shows jet skis, kayaking, scuba diving, an airboat, mini golf, a gym, a club with dancers around a pole and a police chase in its screenshots. Every item on this checklist comes from outlets' coverage of the gameplay reveal: basketball, boxing, pool, fishing, hunting, kayaking, jet skiing, airboating, mini golf, scuba diving, swimming, gym workouts, a shooting range, wrestling, dirt biking, base jumping, car and dirt racing, rentable e-scooters, clubbing with tipping, watching in-game TV, a VR headset, carjacking and armed robberies.
When does GTA 6 come out?
19 November 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, per Rockstar's own product page. No PC release has been dated.