PULSE GAMINGEvery Mainline GTA Game, Ranked Worst to Best
In 1997, the first Grand Theft Auto shipped as a top-down game where you chased a points target instead of an ending. Sixteen years later, GTA V let you switch between three criminals mid-heist. That's the whole arc of this list. We're ranking all eleven mainline games, from that 1997 original to GTA V, with the expansions left out. The rule is simple: how well each one holds up if you sit down and play it today. We're judging the world, the story and the missions, and nostalgia doesn't get a vote. That rule makes things uncomfortable for a few classics. It's also why a Nintendo DS game finishes above the one that invented the 3D open world. By the end, you'll see exactly why that isn't a hot take.
Last place goes to the game that started everything: Grand Theft Auto, DMA Design's top-down original from 1997 on PC and the first PlayStation, and the only entry where you chase a points target instead of finishing a story. Fans will remember the ringing payphone, where you walk up, answer it and get your next job, which is the seed of every mission structure that followed, and the map already holds Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City, so much of the series was decided on day one. It famously began life as a racing-and-chasing experiment before the crime sandbox took over, and in fairness, it matters historically more than almost anything on this list, while the chaos still raises a smile for about twenty minutes. But by today's standards there's barely a story, the missions are disposable errands, the camera sits so close that fast cars reach corners before you can see them, and running out of lives wipes your progress in a way that feels punishing rather than tense. It's a museum piece that holds up as history, not as a weekend, and the next game edges ahead for one reason: it tried to bolt a real plot onto this same viewpoint. One rung up, at number 10, is the GTA that fit in your pocket: Grand Theft Auto Advance, released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance, built by Digital Eclipse rather than an in-house Rockstar studio, and set in a top-down Liberty City shortly before GTA III. What earns it this spot is simple: you finally play as somebody, a man named Mike with a revenge plot and a cast of named characters, and the cartridge squeezes a recognizable Liberty City, districts and all, into your hands, so missions have objectives, a beginning and an end instead of a points target. That's a genuine step up from the 1997 original, and it's the only reason Advance doesn't finish last. The counterpoint is everything else: the screen is tiny, the camera still hides what's coming around the corner, missions lean hard on drive here, shoot that, drive back, and there's no radio to speak of, so the city feels empty between jobs. Played today, it's a curiosity you'd finish out of loyalty rather than delight, and the next entry, also top-down, had a far better idea about how a city should react to you.
Number 9 is where the series got political: Grand Theft Auto 2, released in 1999 on PC and the original PlayStation, later Dreamcast, set in the retro-future Anywhere City and the last top-down mainline game before everything went 3D. Fans remember the gang respect system, where each district has rival gangs and taking jobs from one sinks your standing with another, so the city's politics shift under your feet as you play, a systemic idea later games rarely did as cleanly. Add the live-action opening film and radio stations that change with the type of car you steal, and you can see how much personality Rockstar already wanted packed into its worlds, even when those worlds were viewed from directly overhead. In fairness, the respect meters are clever on paper, but the missions are still short, repetitive errands, the top-down camera hasn't aged any better than the original's, and saving means paying in-game cash at a church, which is a relic. So it sits above Advance because its world actually reacts to you, and below everything else because the frame around it is from another century; in 2001, the camera dropped behind the car, and nothing about the series stayed the same. We'd call it the most important game on this list, and it still only reaches number 8: Grand Theft Auto III, released in October 2001 on PlayStation 2, then PC and Xbox, the game that turned the series into a 3D city you could actually live in. Fans will nod at Claude, the lead who never says a word, at Chatterbox FM, the all-talk station that proved radio could be a comedy show on its own, and at Liberty City's three islands opening one by one as the bridges come online, a simple trick that still makes the world feel like it's growing. But importance isn't the criterion, and played today the shooting has no real cover or free aim on console, missions without checkpoints send you all the way back when a long job fails, and Claude's silence leaves the story with very little at its center. The 2021 Definitive Edition, which only reached Steam in January 2023, doesn't rescue it either, sitting at Mixed with 66 percent positive across 8,049 reviews and asking $59.99, which is a lot to pay for a history lesson. So it lands below several games that copied its homework, and the very next one fixed a surprising amount on a PSP.
If GTA III came with a repair manual, it would look a lot like number 7: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, built by Rockstar Leeds for the PSP in 2005, ported to PS2 in 2006 and set in Liberty City in 1998, three years before GTA III. You know the lead, Toni Cipriani, the mob errand-runner from GTA III who finally gets to talk, and you'll remember his mother, who keeps phoning to nag him about his life choices, which is the running joke, and it works. It also borrows freely from later games, adding motorcycles, more mission variety and a quicker pace built for a handheld, all on the same map GTA III used, so it's the same city with a lead who has a voice and missions that are shorter and better to replay. In fairness, it's a smaller game, the city is a remix of one you've already seen, and the story never reaches for anything big, so it's comfortable rather than surprising. But that's exactly why it beats GTA III by our rule, because today it plays like the GTA III you remember rather than the one you'd actually get, and its sequel went back to Vice City with a business empire, so why does a spin-off land this high? Number 6 is the GTA where Vice City's water finally stops being a death trap: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, released by Rockstar Leeds on PSP in 2006, later ported to PS2 and set in 1984, two years before the original Vice City. Its lead is Victor Vance, the soldier you briefly meet in the opening minutes of Vice City, and if you know how his story ends, every hopeful step he takes here carries a tragic undertone that's hard to shake. The fan detail is the empire-building system, where you take over businesses across the city and defend them from rivals, a deeper version of Vice City's property buying, and the second is swimming, which turns beaches and canals into part of the map instead of an instant game over. That's why it edges past Liberty City Stories: the world simply has more to do, and Victor is a better character than Toni, phone calls from Mom and all. In fairness, it's still a handheld game in scale, some empire missions get repetitive and you're revisiting a city the next tier did better, so it's a strong game living in a bigger game's shadow, which is exactly why the next entry, another handheld, matters: it's the one we promised would beat GTA III outright.
Here's the surprise we promised, and it lands at number 5 on a Nintendo DS: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, released in March 2009 and later brought to PSP and mobile, took the series back to a top-down view, only this time tilted and redrawn in a crisp cel-shaded style. Fans will nod at the touch-screen hot-wiring, where you physically twist and connect wires to steal a car, and at Huang Lee, a sarcastic lead whose comic-panel dialogue is some of the sharpest writing the series has ever produced. Then there's the street trading economy, buying low in one neighborhood and selling high in another, which is a whole game inside the game, plus police chases you escape by wrecking the cars behind you, turning every wanted level into a puzzle instead of a hide-and-wait. In fairness, the map is a compressed Liberty City, there's no voice acting and you won't get cinematic scale here, but the missions are short, varied and built to be replayed, which is exactly what our criterion rewards, so we stand by putting a handheld above GTA III. From here, every game left is a full home-console giant, starting with the one that wore the 1980s best. Neon, palm trees and Ray Liotta's voice carry Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to number 4, a game that landed on PS2 in 2002, a year after GTA III, then reached PC and Xbox, set in a Miami-style city in 1986. Fans will nod at the radio, from Flash FM's pop hits to the talk stations, which still does more world-building than any loading screen, and at the property system, where buying the Malibu Club or the film studio opens new mission strands so the story grows as Tommy Vercetti's empire does. The fair counterpoint has a name, Demolition Man, the RC helicopter job players still call one of the most frustrating in the series, and it sits alongside stiff shooting, long missions with no checkpoints and no swimming in a city built around water. But Tommy talks, the plot has a clean rise-and-fall shape, the neon gives you a reason to keep driving after dark, and even the Definitive Edition on Steam sits at Very Positive, with 83% of 9,799 reviews in its favor. So it beats GTA III for one simple reason: you feel its personality every minute. Two years later, Rockstar went from one city to an entire state.
Three cities, a whole state and a man flying home for his mother's funeral put Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at number 3, a game that landed on PS2 in October 2004, reached PC and Xbox in 2005 and stretched Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas across countryside and desert. Carl Johnson's return to Grove Street gives it the strongest emotional hook of the 3D-era trilogy, and you'll still hear Wrong Side of the Tracks quoted at you, train and all, while the RC plane mission Supply Lines remains almost as notorious. The RPG layer keeps giving too, with stats for driving, stamina and muscle, a gym that reshapes CJ and a jetpack that changes how you see the whole map. Some of you will call third too low, and that's fair, but the missions swing hard between brilliant and padded, the back half's tone wanders, the controls are pure PS2 and the Definitive Edition on Steam sits at Very Positive, 80% of 16,981 reviews, for $59.99, which is a lot to ask for old bones. Held to a play-it-today standard, we think it has the biggest heart on this list, but its scope can't hide its age, which raises the obvious question of what beats a game this big, and the answer went smaller, darker and much more physical. The best story in the series sits one spot short of the top: Grand Theft Auto IV, released April 29, 2008 on PS3 and Xbox 360, with PC later that year, and the first GTA built on the RAGE engine with Euphoria physics, which is why cars still have real weight and people still stumble like people. Niko Bellic, an immigrant chasing a past he can't outrun, is the most human lead the series has had, and you'll nod at Three Leaf Clover, the bank heist that spills into a street shootout, and at cousin Roman's phone calls asking you to go bowling, which, fair, became the internet's favorite running joke. Cover-based shooting finally makes combat play like a modern game, and if you want it today, The Complete Edition is $19.99 on Steam, sitting at 83 percent positive across more than 206,000 user reviews. The counterpoint is honest: the palette is gray and brown, the driving is heavy enough to frustrate newcomers, and the PC version stayed tied to Games for Windows Live until the 2020 Complete Edition finally cut it loose. On story alone, we'd put this at number one, but on the whole package played today, one game is still slightly stronger, and it took Niko's realism and handed you three people to switch between.
September 17, 2013 is where the climb ends, because number 1 is Grand Theft Auto V, which launched on PS3 and Xbox 360, came back for PS4, Xbox One and PC, then returned again for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, three console generations of the same game. Its story runs through three leads, Michael, Franklin and Trevor, and you can switch between them almost anywhere, which keeps the pacing tight in a way the single-lead games before it never managed. Fans will nod at the heists, from The Jewel Store Job, where you pick your approach and your crew, to The Big Score at the end, still the series' biggest set piece, all spread across a Los Santos and Blaine County packed with sport, flying and side stories. In fairness, GTA Online's success arguably meant single-player story expansions never arrived, and Trevor's humor won't land for every player, but the Enhanced version on Steam, out March 4, 2025 and currently $19.79, sits at 83 percent positive across 233,409 reviews, with 42,283 people playing when we checked. Judged on world, story and missions together, played today, it's the one that needs the fewest apologies, which is why it takes the top spot, narrowly, over GTA IV, and why our hardest call is still to come.
Our pick: GTA V takes the top spot because it's the one you can hand to anyone today without a single apology. Its world is the densest Rockstar built in this era. Its three-lead story means the pacing rarely sags. And its heists are the best missions the series has made, with planning, crews and payoffs that still feel modern. So the top three reads GTA V, then GTA IV, then San Andreas. Now the honest part. Our hardest call was second against first. GTA IV has the better story and the braver tone, and Niko is the most human lead the series has had. If you care about plot above everything, swap them and we won't argue much. But the criterion was the whole package played today. On that, Los Santos still wins. That's the Pulse. Play something good this week.
The full ranking
- 11Grand Theft Auto
- 10Grand Theft Auto Advance
- 9Grand Theft Auto 2
- 8Grand Theft Auto III
- 7Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- 6Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
- 5Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
- 4Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- 3Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- 2Grand Theft Auto IV
- 1Grand Theft Auto V
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Grand Theft Auto V
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Grand Theft Auto IV
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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
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Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
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Grand Theft Auto III
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Grand Theft Auto 2
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Grand Theft Auto Advance
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