Leonida

8:48 Leonida is the fictional US state where Grand Theft Auto 6 takes place, Rockstar's take on present-day Florida; Rockstar calls it "the state where anything goes". Rob Nelson of Rockstar North gave TGG its size: twice Grand Theft Auto V's map and three times Red Dead Redemption 2's. Vice City alone is twice the size of Los Santos, and Vice City with its suburbs is eleven times Los Santos and its surroundings. The regions Rockstar has described are Vice City, the Leonida Keys, the Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga, each with its own line on Rockstar's site, and the game's own page calls its story "a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida". The latest look at the state is the launch trailer of Oct 15, 2026, a minute and a half of guns, crime and driving across it (Trailers); the game comes out on Nov 19, 2026.

Quick facts

Vice City

6:42 "We're a long way from the 80s, but Vice City is still the sun and fun capital of America", Rockstar's site begins, with neighborhoods from the pastel art deco hotels of Ocean Beach to Little Cuba, a flea market full of bootleg brands, and a port that is "the cruise ship capital of the world". See Vice City.

The Leonida Keys

7:59 The Leonida Keys are the island chain based on the Florida Keys. Rockstar's line: "The dress code is casual. The bars are loaded. Life in this tropical archipelago isn't flashy, but it is easy", with a warning that you are "right on the doorstep of some of the most beautiful and dangerous waters in all of America". It is where Jason Duval lives and works, and where IGN expects to find Brian's Boat Works and Marina, the front for Brian Heder's smuggling; the Rusty Anchor bar, where Jason, Lucia and Cal Hampton drink in Trailer 2, is in the Keys too.

The Grassrivers

9:28 The state's wetlands, Rockstar's answer to the Everglades, are in Rockstar's words the untameable jewel in Leonida's crown, where "the gators may be the most famous attraction, but there are far deadlier predators and weirder discoveries among the mangroves". Trailer 2 ends with Jason flying a helicopter over them after an airboat.

26:28 A montage in An Extended Look shows Jason driving an airboat through the swamp, and manatees in Leonida's waters.

Port Gellhorn

10:10 Port Gellhorn is "Leonida's forgotten coast": cheap motels, closed attractions and empty strip malls that "won't bring the tourists back", and "a new economy" running on "malt liquor, painkillers, and truck stop energy drinks". Trailer 2 puts a car chase and a run-down motel there, and TGG places the Delights strip club in Port Gellhorn too.

Ambrosia

11:10 Ambrosia is in the heart of Leonida, where, as Rockstar puts it, American industry and old school values come first: the Allied Crystal Sugar Refinery provides the jobs, and a local biker gang, the Final Chapter, "provides almost everything else". Trailer 1 showed its people partying in the mud.

Mount Kalaga

11:44 In the north, Mount Kalaga National Park offers "prime hunting, fishing, and off-road trails", and in its backwoods "hillbilly mystics and paranoid radicals live far from the prying eyes of the government". Rockstar's screenshots also show big cats there, a danger players of Grand Theft Auto V will remember from Mount Chiliad.

12:20 A television advert in the Extended Look, which TGG places at Mount Kalaga, is crowded with wildlife: squirrels, birds, rabbits, hogs, a bison and deer. As in Red Dead Redemption 2, the player can study animals, and TGG expects spotting them all to be a pastime of its own.

Weather

9:51 Game Informer's cover story of Sep 29, 2026, fourteen pages on how Rockstar recreated Florida, brought the first details of Leonida's weather. "We have re-engineered our weather system to make everything much more localized and persistent," Owen Shepard, Rockstar's vice president of art for lighting and rendering, told the magazine. Clouds roll across the map, a storm can pour down on one part of the state while another stays dry, the puddles stay behind once it has passed, and rainbows can follow a shower. The wind brings "offshore breezes after sunset, convectional updrafts, and occlusion from buildings", and "gusts of wind will blow ripples over the water surface and bend the grass in swamps". TGG read the details out the day the story went live.

11:01 Leonida also gets tropical storms and hurricanes. Rockstar did not say how often they come or whether they change missions, but Shepard described "heavy clouds, strong winds, dense atmospherics, and a lot of rain" until "everything is dripping wet, water is gushing off roof edges and lampposts, thunder rumbles, and flashes of lightning light up the clouds dramatically".

Wildlife

13:25 More than 170 animal species live across Leonida's land, air and sea, Game Informer reported, the most Rockstar has put in a Grand Theft Auto, among them more than 60 kinds of bird and more than 30 land mammals. Florida natives such as flamingos, manatees, pelicans and alligators share the state with the invasive species that live there too: green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats, armadillos and rhesus macaque monkeys. Offshore there are sharks, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish.

14:43 The work builds on the Red Dead Redemption games. Animals show iridescence, bioluminescence and translucency, fur is simulated so that it mats with dirt and clumps when wet, and some animals can be tracked down, ranked Rare, Discoverable and Legendary. Rockstar would not say which ones, wanting them to surprise players.

What Leonida leaves out

8:11 Game Informer asked whether Florida's center, with Orlando and its theme parks, or the Space Coast around Cape Canaveral would appear. The team weighs landscapes, towns and landmarks "to distill a list down that best works with and serves the game's needs", answered Paul MacPherson, Rockstar's senior vice president of environment art, "so, while we may not have those exact locations, everything we have is geared to getting that full Florida experience!" Kotaku read it as no Disney World parody.

Getting around

19:11 Leonida is crossed by car, bike, boat and aircraft, and TGG saw several ways to travel quickly, including bus stops and taxis; a ride-hailing app on the phone calls a car to you. How the cars handle and how the police follow you is on Cars and Driving and Wanted System. Rockstar's Ultimate Edition names further places across the state: garages at Shore Court near Ocean Beach and at Watson Bay, a boat for fishing in Gambit Bay docked at Washington Beach, a mod shop at Lake Leonida, and streetwear and tattoo shops in Stockyard, the city's mural district.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leonida in GTA 6? Leonida is the fictional US state where Grand Theft Auto 6 is set, Rockstar's version of present-day Florida, with Vice City (its Miami) at its heart and five more regions around it: the Leonida Keys, the Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga.

Is Leonida Florida? Yes, in all but name. Rockstar's Leonida has the Keys, Everglades-style wetlands, a sugar town in the heartland and a national park in the north, but Rockstar's Paul MacPherson told Game Informer that Orlando's theme parks and the Space Coast may not appear as such; the team picked the places that best serve the game.

How big is Leonida in GTA 6? Twice the size of Grand Theft Auto V's map and three times Red Dead Redemption 2's, Rob Nelson of Rockstar North told TGG in Aug 2026; Vice City alone is twice the size of Los Santos.

What are the regions of Leonida? Six, as Rockstar describes them: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, the Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park. Rockstar's Ultimate Edition names smaller places too, such as Ocean Beach, Watson Bay, Gambit Bay, Lake Leonida and Stockyard.

Does Leonida have hurricanes? Yes. Rockstar's Owen Shepard told Game Informer in Sep 2026 that Leonida gets tropical storms and hurricanes, with localized weather that can soak one part of the state while another stays dry.

What animals live in Leonida? More than 170 species, over 60 of them birds and more than 30 land mammals, Game Informer reported in Sep 2026: alligators, manatees, flamingos and pelicans alongside invasive iguanas, cane toads and rhesus macaques, with sharks, whales and rays offshore, and some animals ranked Rare, Discoverable and Legendary to track.

Where does the GTA 6 story start in Leonida? In the Leonida Keys, where Jason Duval lives and works; the Rusty Anchor bar and Brian Heder's boat yard are there. The story then reaches across the state, which Rockstar's site describes as a criminal conspiracy stretching across Leonida.

Sources

• Grand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar Games (Ultimate Edition places; story line read Oct 27, 2026)
• Surprise, Here's A New Grand Theft Auto 6 Trailer, Kotaku, Oct 15, 2026
• Grand Theft Auto 6, Wikipedia
• GTA 6: 70 Brand New Screenshots Reveal the Characters and Places of Leonida, IGN, May 6, 2025
• 89 Details From GTA 6 Trailer 2, IGN, May 7, 2025 (video)
• I Saw 3 Hours of GTA 6 at Rockstar North - First Impressions (Exclusive Info), TGG, Aug 27, 2026 (video)
• GTA 6: Every New Gameplay Feature & Mechanic YOU MISSED, TGG, Aug 28, 2026 (video)
• GTAVI: An exclusive deep dive into the video game of the decade, Dazed, Aug 26, 2026
• The Grand Theft Auto VI Digital Issue Is Now Live, Game Informer, Sep 29, 2026
• Exclusive: Grand Theft Auto VI Features Tropical Storms And Hurricanes, Game Informer, Sep 29, 2026
• Exclusive: Grand Theft Auto VI Includes Over 170 Animal Species, Game Informer, Sep 29, 2026
• Grand Theft Auto 6 Will Include Over 170 Species Of Animals As Well As Hurricanes, Kotaku, Sep 29, 2026
• It Sure Doesn't Sound Like GTA 6 Will Include A Disney World Parody, Kotaku, Sep 29, 2026
• GTA 6: NEW INFO - 12 Screenshots, Hurricanes, Theme Parks, 170 Animals, Map Details & More!, TGG, Sep 29, 2026 (video)