Grand Theft Auto VI lands on 19 November 2026, and it's already shaping up to be a monster: pre-sale estimates put revenue at $476 million (£360 million) before a single copy has shipped. Its predecessor, GTA 5, has pulled in around $11 billion since 2013. But beyond the numbers, the game is quietly doing something interesting for travel — pointing millions of players towards real places in Florida they might otherwise never consider.
The new game is set in the fictional state of Leonida, Rockstar's biggest map yet, with six distinct regions modelled loosely on the Sunshine State. The flagship city, Vice City, returns from the 2002 game — once an '80s neon fever dream inspired by Scarface — reimagined as a modern playground of high-rises, rooftop bars and clubs. Its obvious real-world twin is Miami, a city now leaning into the connection as crime rates fall. Think beaches, car culture and EDM institutions like Club Space and E11EVEN.
Then there are the Leonida Keys, a tropical archipelago all about diving, jet skis and party boats. The real counterpart is Key West, the southernmost point of the continental US, just 90 miles from Cuba. Beyond the bars and seafood shacks, there's the Hemingway Home — where the author finished A Farewell to Arms — complete with the Keys' first swimming pool and generations of six-toed cats.
Grassrivers maps onto the Everglades, all mangroves, airboat tours and alligator spotting. The real region offers more than gator kitsch: Seminole food traditions like fry bread and sofkee, plus the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum near Fort Lauderdale, which covers the Seminole nation's history. Port Gellhorn, a run-down former resort town, is thought to be based on Panama City in the Panhandle — a modest spot, but decent for seafood, snorkelling and kayaking at St Andrews State Park. Ambrosia, a sugar-refinery town run by biker gangs, mirrors Clewiston ('America's Sweetest Town') on Lake Okeechobee, which just happens to be one of the best largemouth bass fisheries around. Finally, Mount Kalaga National Park seems to blend Table Rock Mountain in North Carolina, Georgia's Providence Canyon and the Suwannee River.
The broader trend here is real: gamers are increasingly planning trips around virtual worlds — following Yakuza to Tokyo, Assassin's Creed to Paris, Hellblade to Iceland's black-sand beaches. GTA 6 will likely send a wave of them to Florida, and honestly, the state holds up. The game's shadier locations are best enjoyed from a sofa; the beaches, swamps and small towns they're based on are very much worth the flight.
