Waiting for Grand Theft Auto 6 is one thing, but waiting for it on PC is an entirely different story. At least when a game is right around the corner, it becomes easy enough to tell yourself you can just hold out a little longer. With GTA 6 on PC, though, there is still enough uncertainty surrounding that version that sitting around and thinking about it probably isn’t going to make the wait feel any shorter. At some point, you just need something else to play.
Of course, finding another open-world game isn’t exactly difficult, as there are countless open-world games out there to choose from. The problem is finding one that can actually scratch some of the same itch without feeling like a weak substitute for Grand Theft Auto. That’s why I wouldn’t necessarily look for six games that are as close to GTA 6 as possible. I’d rather have six that each get one part of the formula right, whether that’s the freedom of the world, the criminal side of it, or simply that feeling of setting out to do one thing and getting completely distracted before you ever make it there.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently scheduled to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026. Rockstar has not yet announced a PC version or release date.
The Precinct
See GTA-Style Chaos From the Other Side of the Law
The Precinct is probably the oddest place to start because it has you doing the exact opposite of what you’d normally be doing in Grand Theft Auto 6. Instead of trying to lose the police, you are the police. That changes the whole perspective, but the funny thing is that the chaos doesn’t really go anywhere. You’re still speeding through the city, getting caught up in chases, and watching situations become much bigger than they were when they started.
But that’s what also makes it such an easy recommendation. I wouldn’t play The Precinct because I expect it to feel like GTA 6. Rather, I’d play it because it gives a similar kind of urban sandbox where things can go wrong very quickly. The difference is that this time I’m the one trying to clean the mess up instead of being the reason it happened in the first place. If anything, that’s a pretty good way to spend some time before going right back to being the problem in GTA 6.
Schedule I
Build the Criminal Empire GTA Online Players Already Know Well
Schedule I is another one that doesn’t immediately look like an obvious GTA 6 stand-in, and that’s part of why I think it belongs here. There is crime, obviously, but the real hook is the business behind it. You aren’t simply going from job to job and watching the money pile up. You’re trying to build something, expand it, and keep the whole operation moving as it becomes bigger than what you started with.
That should feel familiar to anyone who has gotten way too invested in the business side of GTA Online. I’ve always found buying another property and watching another source of income fall into place oddly satisfying, even if the work needed to get there wasn’t always the most exciting thing in the world. Well, Schedule I takes that part of the experience and gives it much more room to breathe. It isn’t trying to be Grand Theft Auto, but it understands that running a criminal empire can be just as addictive as causing chaos in one.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
Get the GTA Formula With Much Better Melee Combat
I still think Sleeping Dogs deserved far more than it got. Open-world crime games were hardly uncommon when it released, but Hong Kong gave it a distinct personality that kept it from feeling like it was just trying to be another Grand Theft Auto. Even now, there’s something about exploring that city that no other open-world game, as far as I’m concerned, has ever been able to imitate. It feels tight and busy, and that’s a big reason I can still go back to it without feeling like I’m forcing myself through an older open-world game.
Then you get into a fight, and Sleeping Dogs distinguishes itself even more. I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a Grand Theft Auto game because I was excited about punching people, but I absolutely have with this one. The melee combat is brutal enough that I would sometimes look forward to a fight more than a gun battle, especially once the environment came into play. That’s exactly the kind of difference I want from a game I’m using to pass the time before GTA 6.
Watch Dogs 2
Cause Trouble in a Modern City Without Playing by GTA’s Rules
If I were specifically looking for a modern city to mess around in while waiting for GTA 6, Watch Dogs 2 would probably be one of the first games I’d think of. San Francisco gives you plenty of room to wander, but the thing I remember most is how easy it is to stop caring about wherever you were originally headed. That’s usually the sign of a good open world for me. If I can set a waypoint and then spend the next half hour ignoring it, the world is probably doing something right.
The hacking obviously changes the way all of that works. Instead of every problem eventually becoming a shootout, you can start messing with the world around you and see how far that gets you. Sometimes that offers a cleaner solution. Other times, it creates a much bigger problem than the one you were trying to solve in the first place. Either way, it gives Watch Dogs 2 the kind of freedom I think a lot of people are hoping to get out of GTA 6, where the fun isn’t always exclusive to the mission you’re currently supposed to be doing.
Cyberpunk 2077
Lose Yourself in a City That Can Easily Eat Up the Wait
I don’t think Night City and Vice City need to have much in common for Cyberpunk 2077 to work here. The appeal, at least for me, is much simpler than that. Night City is one of those places where I can log in intending to accomplish something and suddenly realize I’ve spent most of my time doing anything but that. I might start driving toward a quest, notice something else nearby, and before long I’ve completely forgotten what I was originally doing.
That’s probably the biggest reason I’d recommend it to someone waiting for GTA 6. I want a big open world to make me curious about what is around the next corner, not make me feel like I’m crossing a map between objectives. Cyberpunk 2077 has become very good at the former. The RPG side of it means the experience is obviously going to feel very different from Grand Theft Auto, but that might actually be better when the whole point is making the wait disappear. Night City can eat up a lot of time if you let it, and right now, that’s kind of the idea.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Play Rockstar’s Best Open World Until GTA 6 Gets Here
There was never really another option for what I would say is my top recommendation, and I know you knew that, too. Red Dead Redemption 2 might look nothing like GTA 6 at first glance, but it is still the most obvious game to play if what you’re really waiting for is another Rockstar open world. I can think of very few games where I have spent so much time doing absolutely nothing important and still felt like I was having a worthwhile experience. Sometimes I would head toward a mission and get there eventually. Other times, whatever happened along the way became the whole point.
That’s the part of Red Dead Redemption 2 I keep coming back to whenever I think about GTA 6. Rockstar made a world that feels like it can exist whether you’re paying attention to it or not, and that makes even the smallest distractions feel worth following. I don’t need GTA 6 to simply be Red Dead Redemption 2 with cars and smartphones, but I do want that same feeling that something interesting could happen because I decided to turn left instead of right. Until PC players finally get to see whether Vice City can pull that off, this is still the Rockstar world I’d disappear into first.
