Games Like GTA 5 for Android, Since GTA 5 Isn’t on It

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is as close as an Android phone gets to GTA 5. Rockstar sells the original version 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. In India and Nigeria it also costs less than GTA III or Vice City.

To 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.

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, and no phone version.

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. 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+.

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”.

Two to try before you pay

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.

Rockstar without Grand Theft Auto

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+, which makes it the pick for a teenager. 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.

Rockstar’s games without a connection

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. Google Play’s web pages do not state a download size, so check the listing on your own phone if space is short.

Free crime games from other makers

All four are free with ads and in-app purchases.

Gangstar Vegas: World of Crime 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. It is rated Mature 17+ and tagged offline by Google Play.

Gameloft’s other Gangstar game, Gangstar New Orleans, has story missions from the French Quarter to the bayou, with 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. It is also Mature 17+. Google Play tags it as multiplayer and gives it no offline tag.

Naxeex’s Real Gangster Crime is the most direct about offline play. Its listing 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. It is rated Teen. New Gangster Crime and Gang War Mafia do not turn up on Google Play under those names, and the nearest there now are this game and Naxeex’s Gangster Crime.

In GamesEZ’s Gangs Town Story 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. It is rated Teen and tagged offline by Google Play.

Sandboxes and role-play servers

If you watch GTA role-play servers, look at OneState RP, from ChillBase. It 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 free with in-app purchases, rated Teen and 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.

MadOut 2: Grand Auto Racing, from MadOut Games, once went by MadOut2 Big City Online and also calls itself a role-play sandbox. It is set in Eastern Europe, with more than 30 story missions, over 70 cars and room for up to 200 players online, and the listing says it plays online and offline. It mentions GTA by name more than once, which tells you what it is aiming at. It is free with ads and in-app purchases and rated Mature 17+. Google Play files it under racing, and there are more of those among offline car racing games.

Apex Designs’ Payback 2 – The Battle Sandbox 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. It is free with ads and in-app purchases, rated Teen and tagged offline by Google Play.

Los Angeles Crimes is a sandbox published under its developer’s own name, Mohammad Alizadeh, 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. It is free with adverts and no in-app purchases, rated Teen and tagged offline by Google Play.

Sandboxes of another kind are in our games like Minecraft for Android.