GTA 6 box art revealed ahead of pre-orders — every GTA cover ranked

Rockstar just dropped the GTA 6 box art ahead of pre-orders opening next week, and Polygon used the moment to rank every Grand Theft Auto cover from worst to best.

At the bottom sits Grand Theft Auto Advance, followed closely by GTA 2 — its intentionally blurred sniper image is awkward, with the reticle aimed at a taxi's hood rather than the hijacker. Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories land in the lower half too, their collages leaning too hard on character faces and weapons without capturing the feel of either game. The original GTA earns a surprisingly high spot for its fish-eye lens police car shot in front of a skyscraper — unusual for the series and genuinely evocative, even if the Trump Tower cameo hasn't aged well. GTA 3 gets credit for inventing the franchise's signature collage style, though some panels feel unfinished. GTA 6 lands at number six, GTA 4 at five, with the top spots going to other entries in the series.

Box art matters less than it used to now that most games are bought digitally, but it still signals what a developer wants players to feel before they ever press start. The GTA series has leaned on collages for decades, and the ranking raises the question of whether Rockstar might experiment with something different down the line.

GTA 6 pre-orders open next week on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.