Games Like GTA 5 for Android: Rockstar’s Own and Others

The nearest thing to GTA 5 on an Android phone is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Rockstar sells it on Google Play for $6.99 in the US, and its listing describes a whole state to roam, three cities including Los Santos, where GTA 5 is also set, and more than 70 hours of play.

If you would rather pay nothing, take Gangstar Vegas from Gameloft. Of the free games, its listing reads most like GTA: an open city, story missions, car chases and gang wars, paid for with adverts and in-app purchases.

We read the Google Play listing of every game on this page, and the descriptions below come from those listings. The prices are the ones Google Play shows.

GTA 5 itself is not on Android

Rockstar’s page on Google Play has no GTA 5 game. The only app there with its name is Grand Theft Auto V: The Manual, a free guide whose listing names PlayStation, Xbox and PC as the places the game itself is sold.

So a download that calls itself GTA 5 for Android did not come from Rockstar. Leave it alone.

There are two honest ways to get GTA 5 onto a phone screen, and both need a copy you already own somewhere else. Sony’s PS Remote Play shows your PS5 or PS4 on the phone, and Valve’s Steam Link streams from a computer running Steam. The game runs on the console or the computer, and the phone is the screen.

GTA 6 does not change this. Rockstar’s site names two platforms for it, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

What Rockstar sells on Android

Five Grand Theft Auto games are on Google Play, three of them in two editions, along with two other Rockstar games.

For the five games with a trial, the price is the single in-app purchase Google Play shows on the listing. In the UK the pay-up-front games cost the same number in pounds, except San Andreas – Definitive at £18.99.

Google Play attaches its “In-app purchases” label to every Grand Theft Auto listing and “Contains ads” to none of them.

The originals or the Definitive editions

III, Vice City and San Andreas each come twice: the older mobile version and the newer Definitive one at $19.99. The sums are plain. All three originals cost $16.97 in the US. All three Definitive editions cost $59.97.

The originals show their age. The Vice City listing still names the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Google Nexus 4 among the phones it was tested on. If you want the newer versions, III and Vice City let you play 30 minutes before paying, which is the cheap way to find out how they run on your phone. San Andreas – Definitive has no trial.

The listings for III – Definitive, Vice City – Definitive and Bully also say that members of Rockstar’s GTA+ subscription can play them for as long as each stays in GTA+.

Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars

Both install free with a 30-minute trial, and both cost less than any Definitive edition. Liberty City Stories follows Toni Cipriani back to Liberty City, the setting of GTA III. Chinatown Wars is the story of Huang Lee, robbed and left for dead while delivering a family sword to his uncle.

Bully and Red Dead Redemption

Rockstar’s other two Android games are not Grand Theft Auto, though they are sold the same way. Bully puts you in a crumbling prep school as the teenager Jimmy Hopkins, and Google Play rates it Teen where every GTA game is Mature 17+.

Red Dead Redemption is the expensive one at $39.99. The listing says it holds the complete single-player game and the Undead Nightmare story, with no multiplayer, and Google Play shows no adverts and no in-app purchases on it.

Offline play

Rockstar’s descriptions do not promise offline play. Google Play attaches its own “Offline” tag to the two editions of GTA III, the original San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, Chinatown Wars and Bully. The original GTA III listing asks for at least 1GB of free space and the original Vice City for 1.5GB.

The Netflix editions

Netflix used to include the three Definitive games for its members, each in its own Google Play listing with NETFLIX in the name. Those listings have gone. The Rockstar game Netflix carries now is Red Dead Redemption NETFLIX, a separate listing that opens with the words “Netflix membership required”.

Open-world games from other makers

The ratings are Google Play’s for the US. “Tagged offline” means Google Play attaches that label and the developer does not say it.

Gangstar Vegas

Gameloft’s game casts you as a gang leader in Las Vegas, with story missions, street fights, boxing, races and a city to drive around in cars, trucks, motorcycles and boats. The listing also promises alien wars, waves of tanks and zombie attacks, so realism is not the aim.

Gangstar New Orleans

Gameloft’s other Gangstar game moves to New Orleans, with story missions from the French Quarter to the bayou, and biker gangs, crooked cops and voodoo priests for company. What the listing adds is Turf Wars, where you defend your patch and raid rival gangs, and a private island to build a mansion on. Google Play tags it as multiplayer and gives it no offline tag.

MadOut 2: Grand Auto Racing

This was MadOut2 Big City Online on our old list. It is set in Eastern Europe, with more than 30 story missions, over 70 cars and room for up to 200 players online. The listing mentions GTA by name more than once, which tells you what it is aiming at. Google Play files it under racing.

Payback 2

Payback 2 is less a story than a box of events: tank battles, helicopter races and gang fights across 50 campaign events, plus a custom mode that mixes seven cities and nine game modes. It has online multiplayer and challenges that change hourly, daily and weekly.

Gangs Town Story

Also from our old list and still on Google Play. You rise from street thug to head of a criminal empire by capturing seven districts of the city. The listing counts more than 20 weapons and over 30 vehicles, a tank among them, with helicopters to fly as well.

Real Gangster Crime

Naxeex’s listing is the most direct about offline play. It says the whole game runs without Wi-Fi, missions, mini-games and free roaming included. The city has gang hideouts, a military base to raid for a tank and in-game radio stations, and the listing adds a zombie arena and a robot boss.

OneState RP

The one to look at if you watch GTA role-play servers. OneState is a role-play game set in a version of modern Los Angeles, where up to 900 real players per server take the jobs: gangster, police officer, medic, business owner. It is online by nature. The US store page had an Install button, and the Indian and Nigerian ones showed us none, so it may not be offered there.

Los Angeles Crimes

A sandbox published under its developer’s own name, with free roam, team death-match, zombie survival, car races and football, in first or third person. The listing mentions worlds made by its players and play over a local network. Google Play shows adverts on it and no in-app purchases.

What happened to our old picks

• Gangstar New Orleans, MadOut2 and Gangs Town Story: all three are still on Google Play and are covered above.
• New Gangster Crime and Gang War Mafia: we could not find either on Google Play under those names. The nearest names there now are Naxeex’s Gangster Crime and Real Gangster Crime.

Which one to pick

• Closest to GTA 5: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the original version at $6.99. In India and Nigeria it also costs less than GTA III or Vice City.
• To try before you pay: Liberty City Stories or Chinatown Wars, free for 30 minutes.
• Free: Gangstar Vegas.
• Free and offline: Real Gangster Crime, because its listing says so outright.
• For a teenager: Bully or Payback 2, both rated Teen.
• GTA role-play: OneState RP, if your country’s store offers it.

For more games read the same way, see our pages on offline car racing games and games like Minecraft for Android.

Quick answers

Is GTA 5 available on Android?

No. Rockstar has no GTA 5 game on Google Play, only a free manual app for the console and PC game. You can stream your own copy from a PlayStation with PS Remote Play or from a computer with Steam Link.

Which GTA games are on Android?

GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars. The first three are sold in an original and a Definitive edition.

Which games like GTA 5 work offline on Android?

Real Gangster Crime says in its listing that it plays without Wi-Fi. Google Play tags Gangstar Vegas, Payback 2, Gangs Town Story, Los Angeles Crimes and six of Rockstar’s ten listings as offline. Google Play’s web pages do not state a download size, so check the listing on your own phone if space is short.

Is there a game like GTA RP for Android?

OneState RP is built for it, with up to 900 players per server in set roles. MadOut 2 also calls itself a role-play sandbox, for up to 200 players.

Will GTA 6 come to Android?

Rockstar’s site names PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S for it, and no phone version.