Where Is GTA 6 Set? Your Answer Is Now Florida, Named by Rockstar's Own Team

GTA 6 is set in the fictional state of Leonida, Rockstar's version of Florida, and its main city is Vice City, Rockstar's version of Miami. Rockstar's official site never actually uses the word Florida. It calls the setting Vice City, USA and the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, but its senior team named Florida and Miami as the inspiration in an interview with LOVE magazine published on 5 October 2026.

So if you are asking whether GTA 6 is in Florida, the answer is yes in spirit and no on the map. You play in Leonida, a state with its own names, towns and geography, built from Rockstar's research trips across the real Florida.

What Rockstar itself says

Rockstar keeps the official copy fictional. The game's site describes Leonida as home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond, and invites you to tour the must-see destinations across the Sunshine State, which happens to be Florida's official nickname. That is as close as the site gets to naming the real state.

The site profiles six places in Leonida, namely Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga. Rockstar presents these as highlights, so they are not necessarily the whole map.

What Rockstar's team told LOVE magazine

The clearest statement so far came in LOVE magazine's Issue 27 interview. Aaron Garbut, Head of Development and Co-Studio Head at Rockstar North, said work on the game began with a small group travelling from Miami through the surrounding towns and the Florida Keys down to Key West, and put it simply, from the start, Florida spoke to us.

He described spending a day hanging out of the side of a helicopter filming the Everglades and the city from the air, ending up over a stadium concert that turned out to be Beyoncé, and said the team travelled around with cops and with gang members to understand the place. Michael Kane, Vice President of Art, called the people and places of Florida a rich, real-life source of reference, and Rupert Humphries, Senior Vice President of Narrative, said that making a game in Florida gives the team so much to work with.

Outlook Respawn summarised the interview on 11 October 2026. Earlier coverage could only say Leonida was widely reported to be Florida. Rockstar's own senior staff have now said it on the record.

Real Florida places outlets spotted in the trailers

Before Rockstar's team spoke, outlets did the matching. After Trailer 1 on 4 December 2023, the Guardian described the game as set in a fictional version of Miami. Kotaku's Alyssa Mercante went further, pointing to art deco buildings in South Beach, the mural-covered Wynwood hotspots, the Florida Everglades, the Seven Mile Bridge that connects mainland Florida to the Keys, and poorer suburbs that felt like places such as Pahokee.

Kotaku also counted the Florida Man moments, from a man trying to fish a gator out of a pool to another gator strutting into a convenience store. Variety later described the Leonida Keys as a fictional locale inspired by the Florida Keys. These are outlet readings of Rockstar's footage, and Rockstar has not confirmed them region by region.

Which region matches which real place

• Vice City matches Miami. Rockstar's team talked about researching Miami in LOVE, and the Guardian and Kotaku both read Trailer 1 as Miami.
• The Leonida Keys match the Florida Keys. Rockstar's research route ran through them to Key West, and Kotaku and Variety both made the link.
• Grassrivers matches the Everglades. Garbut filmed the Everglades from a helicopter, Kotaku spotted them in Trailer 1, and the name echoes the Everglades nickname, River of Grass.
• Ambrosia matches Clewiston and Lake Okeechobee, according to LOVE magazine's interviewer. Rockstar did not confirm or deny it, but Clewiston's motto is America's Sweetest Town and Ambrosia's tagline is Keeping Leonida Sweet.
• Port Gellhorn has no confirmed match. Rockstar calls it Leonida's forgotten coast, and the Forgotten Coast is a real name for part of the Florida Panhandle. Fans suggest Panama City or Tampa, with nothing backing either.
• Mount Kalaga has no confirmed match either. Real Florida has no mountains, since Britton Hill at 345 feet is its highest point. Fans compare it to Providence Canyon in Georgia.

What is still unknown

• How big Leonida is, since Rockstar has not published a map size or an official full map.
• Whether there are regions beyond the six Rockstar has profiled.
• Whether any other state appears. Liberty City is mentioned only as the place Lucia's family came from.

What it means for you

If you know Florida, expect to recognise a lot without finding a single real street name. Rockstar has taken the state's extremes, from Miami money to swamp towns, and rebuilt them under new names.

The separate guides to each region go deeper on what Rockstar says, what the trailers show and what each place is based on. Everything about the full map is confirmed only when GTA 6 arrives on 19 November 2026, and this page will be updated then.