Setting[edit]

The Grand Theft Auto series is set in a fictional version of the world, in a number of different time periods. The original Grand Theft Auto introduced three main cities: Liberty City, based upon New York City, Vice City, based upon Miami, and San Andreas, based upon parts of California. In the first Grand Theft Auto game, San Andreas was based only on San Francisco. Expansion packs later set the game in London.

The second entry in the franchise, Grand Theft Auto 2, set the game in the future in a locale named "Anywhere City"

Subsequent games in the series have re-imagined and expanded upon the original locales. Grand Theft Auto III is set in a different rendition of Liberty City only loosely based on New York City.[8] A revised Vice City and San Andreas are depicted in Vice City and San Andreas, respectively, the latter of which takes the form of an entire state, instead of a single city. The state of San Andreas is based on the states of California and Nevada, and consists of three major cities: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Surrounding towns and areas of desert, water, woodland and countryside lie between the three cities.

Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, originally released on the PlayStation Portable handheld console, are set in the previous depictions of their respective eponymous cities.

Grand Theft Auto IV and its subsequent expansion packs The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony are set in a third revision of Liberty City, set in 2008. A version of New Jersey, known as Alderney, is depicted adjacent to the city. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is also set in this version of Liberty City, although the Alderney portion of the map is not present.[citation needed]

Other places in the same fictional universe as the Grand Theft Auto series also exist; Carcer City and Cottonmouth are two different cities featured in the Manhunt series. There is also the town of Bullworth from another Rockstar Games release, Bully,[citation needed] though it is uncertain if the world from 2010's Red Dead Redemption shares the same universe as Grand Theft Auto.

Only the expansion packs for the original Grand Theft Auto, London, 1969 and London, 1961, set in London, have featured a location outside of the United States and used a real-life location.

The latest instalment, Grand Theft Auto V, is set in a revision of San Andreas that features Los Santos (Los Angeles) to the south and the rural Blaine County to the north.[9] It includes revised landmarks such as the "Vinewood" sign (instead of Hollywood), Rockford Hills (instead of Beverly Hills), Del Perro Pier (instead of Santa Monica Pier), Los Santos International Airport (LSIA) (instead of LAX), and Galileo Observatory (instead of Griffith Observatory).