Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best warm-up for GTA 6

Red Dead Redemption 2 came out on October 26, 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One, and on PC on November 5, 2019. It's the last new game Rockstar made before Grand Theft Auto VI, which launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. And it's still selling: Take-Two's August 2026 investor presentation puts it at over 87 million copies sold-in, and in May the company said it had just had its best year of unit sales since launch.

If you want to play one game before GTA 6, this is the one we'd pick. Not because it's the same kind of game, but because almost everything Rockstar has shown of GTA 6 so far points back to it: the size of its world, its honour system, the way food changes your character, even one of its fields. The catch is length. The main story runs to about 60 hours, and there are 38 days between today and November 19.

Red Dead Redemption 2 at a glance

	Red Dead Redemption 2
Released	October 26, 2018 (PS4, Xbox One); November 5, 2019 (PC)
Developer	Rockstar Games
Setting	A fictional American frontier in 1899, with an epilogue set in 1907
You play as	Arthur Morgan, an outlaw in the Van der Linde gang
Metacritic	97 (PS4 and Xbox One), 93 (PC)
Sales	Over 87 million copies sold-in (Take-Two, August 2026)
Main story length	About 60 hours, per reviews
Online mode	Red Dead Online, included with the game

Why Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best preparation for GTA 6

There's a simple reason to start here. GTA V is from 2013. Red Dead Redemption 2 came five years later, and early development on GTA 6 began after it shipped. Since Rockstar's nearly 27-minute Extended Look premiered on Netflix on August 27, the connections have been hard to miss.

A world three times the size

Rockstar's head of development, Rob Nelson, told YouTuber TGG that "the world is twice the size of GTA 5, and three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2," as VGC reported. Rockstar's development team has also reportedly doubled since RDR2 came out. If its frontier already feels huge, that's the scale GTA 6 starts from.

An honour system with a new name

In RDR2, Arthur's honour rises when you help strangers, follow the law or spare people, and falls when you don't. After the Extended Look, Polygon wrote that GTA 6 is "taking a page out of Red Dead Redemption's playbook with a revamped honor system." Citing IGN's preview, it says Jason and Lucia have a criminal profile alongside the usual wanted level, and that small things like putting trash in a bin or feeding animals can affect it.

Food, bodies and a world that notices

In RDR2, Arthur gains or loses weight depending on how much he eats, and your horse bonds with you as you lead, pet, clean and feed it. GTA 6 brings back the body side of that. Dazed, which previewed the game with Rockstar, reported that "Food affects Jason and Lucia's weight, while exercising visibly builds and tones their muscles." Eurogamer notes that, as with RDR2, GTA 6's world is described as "more grounded and reactive than before."

There's even a literal link. A parody TV ad in the Extended Look, for a 30,000-calorie sandwich meal, opens on a riverbank that fans traced to RDR2's map, just north of Annesburg, VGC reported.

The same 30 frames per second on console

Rockstar's Rob Nelson has said the console versions currently run at 30 frames per second, and VGC reports no 60fps mode is confirmed for launch. RDR2 is also still limited to 30fps on consoles. Play it on a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S this month and you'll get a fair idea of whether a 30fps Rockstar game bothers you.

Red Dead Redemption 2 screenshot: members of the gang trudging through deep snow in the mountains

What Red Dead Redemption 2 does that GTA V didn't

A slower pace. Arthur walks slowly in camp. Horses need looking after. Guns need cleaning. Some players found this tedious, and some reviews singled out the slow opening hours. Others found it made the world feel real. Either way, it was a deliberate choice, and it tells you Rockstar is willing to slow things down for the sake of immersion.

A longer, heavier story. GamesRadar+ counted 104 main missions, against 79 in GTA V. The Van der Linde gang's decline is a long, sad story with a lot of quiet time between missions. GamesRadar+'s David Meikleham (5/5) called it "perhaps the boldest triple-A game ever made" story-wise, and IGN's Luke Reilly (10/10) called it "a gorgeous depiction of an ugly period." At The Game Awards 2018 it won four awards, including Best Narrative and Best Performance for Roger Clark as Arthur.

What it shares with GTA. Under the cowboy hat, it's still a Rockstar open world: tightly scripted story missions, a huge map full of side activities, a morally grey lead and plenty of satire about America, even in 1899. If you've played GTA but not Red Dead, it'll feel familiar within an hour.

How long is Red Dead Redemption 2, and can you finish it before GTA 6?

IGN's review describes a "60-hour main storyline," and GamesRadar+ puts the story at "upwards of 70" hours. The side content could keep you going for months. From October 12 to November 19 is 38 days, or about five and a half weeks, so here's what that time looks like at different paces:

Hours you play a week	Hours by November 19	A realistic goal
5	About 27	Get a feel for the world and the gang, then shelve it
10	About 54	Most of the main story, if you stick to it
15	About 81	The main story, with time for some side content
20 or more	100 or more	The story, the epilogue and plenty of hunting and fishing

If you're in the top two rows, be realistic. You can play the opening stretch, get a feel for the world and park it for later without missing the point. Our guide on clearing your backlog before GTA 6 has tips on parking a long game properly, and if 60 hours sounds like a lot for any game, we've asked whether video games are too long.

Red Dead Redemption 2 screenshot: two riders crossing open farmland at sunset

Where to play Red Dead Redemption 2 in October 2026

Platform	Version	Worth knowing
PC	Native PC version (2019)	The version with the most visual upgrades, and the only one not limited to 30fps
PS5	PS4 version, through backward compatibility	30fps; in the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium catalogue since May 19, 2026
Xbox Series X/S	Xbox One version, through backward compatibility	30fps
PS4 and Xbox One	The original release	Still a fine way to play if you haven't upgraded

Rockstar hasn't announced a native PS5 or Xbox Series X/S version, though the original Red Dead Redemption got one in December 2025. If you're playing through PlayStation Plus, remember that catalogue games rotate out, so check before you commit to a long run.

Red Dead Online comes with the game and is still playable, but in July 2022 Rockstar said it would stop making major updates for it as resources moved to GTA 6. It isn't the main reason to go back.

Should you play Red Dead Redemption 1 first?

You don't need to. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel set in 1899. The original, from 2010, is set in 1911 and follows John Marston, who you also play in RDR2's epilogue. Playing RDR2 first works well, and the original makes a natural follow-up. It's now on PS4 and Switch (August 2023), PC (October 2024), and PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2 (December 2025). For GTA 6 preparation, though, RDR2 is the one that matters.

If you've already played it

If you finished Red Dead Redemption 2 years ago, you don't need to replay it. But you might want to revisit it for an evening. Ride somewhere with no mission marker, visit a town you remember, or start the epilogue again. It's a reminder of how much work goes into a Rockstar world, and it'll sharpen what you notice when you finally get to Vice City. If you're still unsure whether to go back to Los Santos instead, we wrote about whether to replay GTA V before GTA 6.

If you start RDR2 now and GTA 6 arrives before the credits, you don't have to pick between finishing it and giving up on it. In Perthro, mark it Shelved, the status for games you've paused on purpose and plan to come back to. It stays in your backlog with the hours you've logged, ready for the quiet weeks after November.