Grand Theft Auto VI has received its PEGI 18 age rating, and the board's content description reveals striking new details about Rockstar's most ambitious game, including decapitation, prominent drug use, and strong sexual themes.
The rating, published on the Pan European Game Information board's website, gives players one of their most detailed looks yet at the game ahead of its November launch. It arrives just one day after GTA 6 received its official ESRB rating of M for Mature in North America.
According to the PEGI description, players will take control of Jason Duval or Lucia Caminos, two criminals who become involved in a criminal conspiracy following a failed robbery. The pair work together as they become increasingly entangled in criminal activities across Vice City.
The board describes the game's violence as "bloody with a high degree of realism." Because of the game's free-roam nature, players can harm any character in the environment, including civilians, criminals, and the authorities. Certain weapons are said to be capable of greater damage, "such as detailed decapitation and dismemberment."
Drug use is described as "frequent and prominent," with players able to partake in drug use with other characters and use illegal drugs directly from their inventory. Cocaine features especially heavily in Vice City: the rating notes that it can be carried by the player and "snorted directly from their hand at any time."
The PEGI summary also flags "strong sexual themes," including nudity, scenes of intercourse, and occasional scenes of sexual fetishes. In the game's nightclubs, players can pay for private dances, during which the game allows the player to move their hands onto the dancers' breasts and buttocks.
The rating's "other issues" section adds further detail. Domestic animals can be harmed, though not in the same detail as humans. Strong language is pervasive: the word "f" is featured prominently, while the word "c" appears occasionally. Discriminatory language can also be heard in the game's TV shows and radio stations.
The description also notes that players will have the option to purchase in-game items, though exactly what that entails remains unclear. In August, it was reported that Rockstar would not include microtransactions or generative AI in the game.
In a strange twist, PEGI has since removed the age rating page from its website. The listing now returns a "page could not be found" message, though users on social media captured and shared images of it before it disappeared. PEGI has not commented on why the page was taken down.
The level of detail in the rating summary speaks to the unprecedented scope Rockstar has packed into GTA 6. Previous footage has shown an open-world sandbox dense with activities, characters, and systems, built to justify the 13-year wait since Grand Theft Auto V.
Grand Theft Auto VI is still on course to launch November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
