Skip to content
Kiplinlen

GTA 5 Age Rating and How Old the Game Is

1 min read

GTA 5 cover image

Two questions hide behind the same search: what age the game is rated for, and how long it has somehow stayed at the top of the charts.

A search for GTA 5 age usually means one of two things, so here are both.

The age rating

  • ESRB (North America): M for Mature 17+
  • PEGI (Europe): 18
  • USK (Germany): 18
  • ACB (Australia): R18+

Every major board puts it in its top bracket. The content descriptors are the reason: intense violence, blood and gore, strong language, drug use, nudity and sexual content. There is no censored or lower-rated edition — the rating is the same on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

Is it suitable for a younger player?

That is a parenting call, not a rating one, but two specifics are worth knowing before deciding. The story contains a torture sequence the player performs directly, and GTA Online puts your kid in open voice chat with strangers. The second one surprises more parents than the first.

How old the game is

GTA V released on 17 September 2013, on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It has since been re-released on PS4 and Xbox One in 2014, PC in 2015, and PS5 and Xbox Series in 2022.

That makes it over a decade old and still one of the best-selling games ever made — largely because GTA Online kept getting updates long after the single-player story stopped.