GTA 6 Online Confirmed as Court Reveals the Number Rockstar Tried to Hide
Rockstar wanted GTA 6 Online to remain “one of the company’s best-kept secrets.” That lasted until day one of the trial. A Scottish court just did what the studio’s marketing team had been putting off for years.
The case between Rockstar North and the IWGB union, which opened this week in Glasgow over the firing of 34 employees, delivered a bombshell no one expected from this angle. Court documents explicitly mention a 32-player online mode for GTA 6, just as the game’s release draws near. Ironic, considering this is a studio that controls every frame shown to the public.
Image credit: Rockstar Games
A union trial turns into a global leak
The story goes back to October 2025, when Rockstar North fired 34 employees—31 in the UK and 3 in Canada—allegedly for sharing confidential info on an internal Discord server. The IWGB union disputes this, calling it anti-union retaliation. The final hearing, which began September 10 in Glasgow, was supposed to focus on labor rights. Instead, it exposed exactly what Rockstar was desperate to keep under wraps.
GTA 6’s Online Mode has had its first official mention in court documents released from the Rockstar v Union case. Claims that “One of the most closely guarded secrets of the company. Two discussed an online 32 player format that was highly confidential at that time.” pic.twitter.com/KlPCOidXMi
— (@SynthPotato) date
The court files spell it out: a “32-player online format, highly confidential at the time.” The court even called the internal discussions about this number “extraordinarily alarming,” echoing Rockstar’s own words describing GTA 6 multiplayer as “one of the company’s best-kept secrets.” One fired employee mentioned on Discord their part in a test session: “No idea, they said the big session we did today was tough to organize, but it was 32 players—I don’t see what was so complicated.”
It wasn’t a trailer or a press release that confirmed GTA 6 Online’s existence, but a Scottish court. For a studio that scripts every leak to the millimeter, the irony is delicious.
32 players on a map three times bigger: fans call it a step back
The 32-player figure instantly set social media ablaze—and not in the way Rockstar hoped. Here’s why: GTA 5 Online already runs 32-slot lobbies (30 active players and 2 spectators) on PS4/Xbox One. Keeping that cap while GTA 6’s map is supposedly two or three times larger feels more like treading water than a leap forward. On X, reactions range from outright disappointment to calls for at least 64-player sessions.
Others are more measured, pointing to GTA 6: The Daily Chores That Made the Cut (and the Ones That Didn’t). A denser world packed with NPCs, dynamic events, and environmental detail could justify the same player cap—if the experience gains in quality what it doesn’t in quantity. Still, that’s a tough pill to swallow for a community expecting a true generational leap.
Dynamic sessions: the tech that could change everything
Before you cry foul, it’s worth looking at the patents. Take-Two filed US11794114B2, describing a dynamic session system that can merge and split lobbies in real time, with no loading screens. In practice, a player moving from the countryside into the city could be seamlessly shifted into a busier session. Multiple clusters of 32 players would coexist on the same map, all interconnected behind the scenes.
If this tech makes it into GTA 6 Online, 32 wouldn’t be a global limit, just a local density. The whole map could host far more players without tanking performance—which is already a hot topic given GTA 6’s technical demands. But caution: a patent is no guarantee. Plenty of patented tech never makes it into a finished game.
A $500 million-a-year gamble
GTA Online isn’t just a multiplayer mode—it’s a money-printing machine. Between September 2025 and April 2026, the service pulled in an average of $9.59 million per week, nearly $500 million for the year. That’s a jaw-dropping figure for a game that’s been out thirteen years, and it explains why Take-Two can’t afford to mess up the transition to GTA 6 Online. The financial stakes come down to a few key numbers:
- An estimated development cost of $2 billion (about $1.9 billion) for GTA 6
- Projected revenue of $8 to $8.2 billion for Take-Two in fiscal year 2027
- An online mode planned after the solo launch on November 19, 2026, at the heart of Strauss Zelnick’s “recurring spending” strategy
Moving millions of entrenched players—with years of progress and habits—into a new ecosystem while keeping profits up: that’s a colossal challenge. The entire commercial ecosystem around GTA 6 hinges on Rockstar’s ability to match—and then surpass—the formula that turned GTA Online into a golden goose.
Rockstar still hasn’t officially announced anything about GTA 6 Online. With just over two months until the solo release, it’s a Scottish court that holds the scoop Rockstar’s marketing kept kicking down the road. The question isn’t if multiplayer exists, but when—and how—Rockstar will reclaim control of its own story.
