5 Free Games To Play While You Wait For GTA 6

Published Jul 25, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work. Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been interminably long and fraught with endless delays and a plethora of half-hearted teasers. Thankfully, all of that is officially coming to an end (touch wood), as Rockstar seeks to deliver its fabled video game on November 19, 2026. However, while that date is certainly creeping up on us all, and we've all likely gotten our pre-orders in, there is still plenty of time to game before GTA 6 dominates our lives. Fortunately, there are plenty of amazing games like GTA already available and about the right length to be played before November rolls around. However, for those who don't feel like spending anything (GTA 6 does cost $100 after all) but still want the full Grand Theft Auto experience, there are, fortunately, a handful of games just like it that won't cost you a dime. While they don't all quite match GTA's penchant for realism and brilliance, they offer excellent experiences that are sure to be enough to tide fans over until the real thing launches. 5 NTE: Neverness to Everness NTE: Neverness to Everness is one of the rare games that has dared to take on the near-impossible task of replicating Grand Theft Auto and succeeded. As someone who is typically averse to the gacha genre, I was blown away by just how engrossing NTE ended up being, its wide swathe of available gameplay mechanics, ideas, and systems coming together rather nicely to create something that feels very much like GTA if it were an anime. Sure, there are plenty of microtransactions for those who want to spend money, but everything one would expect from a GTA-like is available completely for free. You can roam around an enormous open-world completing quests, fighting monsters, getting into scrapes with the cops, buying up businesses, engaging in street races, going to jail, breaking out of jail, customizing your home, and so much more. This is truly GTA meets Genshin Impact, although that shouldn't perturb Genshin Impact haters, as it's far more like Rockstar's classic than it is HoYoverse's iconic game. NTE: Neverness to Everness is also one of the few free single-player GTA-likes available. While it can be played with friends, this is an open-world, story-driven action title that's completely playable solo. It can't be played offline, but it is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and doesn't require a subscription to be played. Truly, if you want a free game to play before Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out, NTE: Neverness to Everness is the perfect choice. 4 APB Reloaded APB Reloaded was an early attempt at offering a GTA-esque experience as a free-to-play MMO, and, in many respects, it succeeds in delivering that exciting promise. It offers complete customization over your character, a huge open-world populated by other players, PvP at all times, the ability to choose between factions, missions to complete, cars to collect, a huge arsenal of weapons to burn through, and more. APB Reloaded really wanted to be GTA Online before GTA Online, and while it never quite reached those heights, it certainly offers a lot of fun. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of APB Reloaded, beyond blasting through the city guns blazing with friends, is its faction mechanic that sees players choose between being a criminal and an enforcer. The former lets you cause havoc across the city while the latter sees you attempt to curb said havoc. It was a novel idea, one that has only really been explored in Sleeping Dogs and is frankly sorely underutilized in other urban open world titles. The only downside of APB Reloaded is that it's rather old, and a little bit broken. Now that it's been around for 15 years, APB Reloaded doesn't quite have the player count it once did. Steam reviews also accuse the game of being full of hackers, being unbalanced, very grindy, and, ultimately, pay-to-win. Of course, as it is completely free, anyone can jump in to test it out without losing anything. At the very least, it'll kill a few hours before GTA Online is next free or Grand Theft Auto 6 finally releases. 3 Gangstar Vegas Gangstar Vegas is Gameloft's attempt at offering a Grand Theft Auto-esque experience on mobile. It is the eighth game in the Gangstar series, although not the most recent. Released in 2013, Gangstar Vegas served as the mobile equivalent of GTA: Vice City and, while certainly nowhere near as good in terms of quality, provided hours of fun for those looking for a free Grand Theft Auto clone on mobile. Today, Gangstar Vegas is still available and delivers just as much simple open-world fun as it did over a decade ago. While New Oreleans is technically an improved experience thanks to it being a newer release, Vegas is closer in tone and style to Grand Theft Auto 6, at least when it comes to the setting. Regardless, all the available Gangstar games let you roam around a huge open-world, blast cops and bad guys with an assortment of weapons, complete missions, and drive fast cars. Gangstar Vegas does have plenty of in-game microtransactions, as one would expect, and is riddled with ads for those determined to get through it completely for free. It is, sadly, the nature of free mobile games, but it shouldn't entirely deter those who just want to play it for a few hours and mess around in a GTA 6-esque open-world. It can also be played offline, although in-game events, daily rewards, and the like won't be made available. 2 One-Armed Robber While One-Armed Robber isn't an open-world game like GTA, it does take the heist element of GTA 5 and turn it into a first-person free-to-play shooter. Akin to Payday 2, One-Armed Robber sees players attempt to rob a series of banks, although the twist is they can only use one of their arms. You'll bring an assortment of weapons, which can be customized beforehand to better deal with certain scenarios, and must race against the clock and cops to get as many bags of cash and stolen goods into the van before escaping. One-Armed Robber may not be exactly like Grand Theft Auto (the pickings are frankly slim), but it offers that same chaotic action seen in GTA 5's excellent heist missions, and is the perfect free game to play solo or with friends. Of course, like with other entries in this list, One-Armed Robber comes packed with microtransactions, and can, at times, feel like a pay-to-win game. However, for a few hours of free fun while waiting for GTA 6 to finally come out, it absolutely serves its purpose. 1 Red Dead Redemption Technically, Red Dead Redemption isn't free, as it requires a Netflix subscription to be played. However, now that RDR is available for free through Netflix, so long as you're a subscriber, you can play through the entire game on mobile without paying full price for it. That's a huge win, especially considering that the game costs quite a hefty sum on modern platforms, despite being a fairly basic remaster. The mobile version is easily the cheapest way (and basically free) to access the game. It is perfectly timed before Grand Theft Auto 6 releases, as, while different in a lot of respects, Red Dead Redemption offers a GTA-esque experience, albeit in the Wild West. Its story is utterly incredible, its open-world breathtaking to behold, and it's packed with the attention to detail and immersive mechanics Rockstar is best known for. Sure, the major caveat is that you have to play it on mobile, but the port works surprisingly well, and it's the ideal way to play it while rewatching the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer for the hundreth time on your TV. Released November 19, 2026 ESRB Rating Pending - Likely Mature 17+ Developer(s) Rockstar Games Publisher(s) Rockstar Games Engine Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) Multiplayer Online Multiplayer