•Filip Premuš• 15 min read
Games
Top 9 Games Like GTA (2026)
Few open-world games offer the same combination of crime, driving, gunfights, exploration, and unrestricted chaos as Grand Theft Auto V. More than a decade after its original release, the game from Rockstar Games remains the standard against which urban crime sandboxes are measured.
However, GTA is far from the only series that lets you steal vehicles, evade the police, complete criminal jobs, or cause trouble across a large city. Some alternatives focus on organized crime and serious storytelling, while others push the sandbox formula toward hacking, futuristic technology, or ridiculous levels of destruction.
Here are the best games like GTA to play in 2026:
# | Game | Best For |
|---|---|---|
1 | Over-the-top open-world chaos | |
2 | Hacking and urban exploration | |
3 | Martial arts and undercover crime | |
4 | Organized crime and revenge | |
5 | Futuristic city exploration |
1. Saints Row: The Third Remastered
Saints Row: The Third Remastered is the closest alternative for players who enjoy GTA’s criminal sandbox but want something considerably less restrained. Instead of trying to present a believable city, Saints Row turns every mission into an excuse for increasingly absurd weapons, vehicles, characters, and explosions.
The story follows the Third Street Saints after they have transformed from a street gang into a commercial empire. Their expansion brings them into conflict with the Syndicate, giving you an entire city filled with rival gangs and military forces to dismantle.
Steelport can be explored alone or with another player in online co-op. You can steal vehicles, customize your character, purchase properties, complete side activities, and cause enough destruction to attract increasingly powerful enemies. The remastered edition also includes the original game’s expansion missions and DLC.
Why It’s Similar:
Large urban open world
Criminal organizations and gang warfare
Cars, aircraft, tanks, and other vehicles
Character and vehicle customization
Police pursuits and escalating notoriety
Story campaign with optional co-op
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: Saints Row: The Third Remastered is the closest match for GTA players who care more about freedom and chaos than realism. It takes familiar GTA mechanics and pushes them in a deliberately ridiculous direction.
Buy Saints Row: The Third Remastered on GameBoost
2. Watch Dogs 2
Buy Watch Dogs 2 if you want a modern urban sandbox in which technology is as useful as a weapon. You play as Marcus Holloway, a hacker who joins DedSec to expose the companies using San Francisco’s connected infrastructure to monitor and manipulate its population.
Marcus can remotely control vehicles, cameras, security systems, traffic lights, and other electronic devices. Hacking a traffic signal during a pursuit can cause a crash, while remotely controlling a forklift or drone may create an alternative route into a restricted building.
The game gives you considerable freedom in how you approach missions. You can sneak through an area without directly confronting anyone, distract guards with hacked equipment, send police after hostile NPCs, or abandon subtlety and use firearms. Its driving, city exploration, side activities, and unpredictable pedestrian interactions will all feel familiar to GTA players.
Why It’s Similar:
Detailed modern city
Cars, motorcycles, boats, and other vehicles
Police pursuits and wanted levels
Open-ended missions
Optional multiplayer activities
Large selection of side content
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: Watch Dogs 2 is one of the strongest GTA alternatives because its hacking systems create possibilities that GTA does not offer. San Francisco is colorful, reactive, and genuinely enjoyable to explore without following the main story.
3. Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition places you in Hong Kong as Wei Shen, an undercover police officer attempting to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad. The assignment forces Wei to earn the trust of dangerous criminals without completely losing sight of his responsibilities as a police officer.
Its open-world structure includes street races, vehicle theft, police pursuits, collectibles, side cases, and activities spread across different parts of Hong Kong. The city is smaller than Los Santos, but its busy streets, markets, signs, and narrow alleys give it a strong identity.
The biggest difference is its combat. Sleeping Dogs uses a hand-to-hand fighting system built around counters, combos, grappling, and environmental takedowns. Firearms still appear, but most confrontations feel closer to a martial arts movie than a traditional open-world shooter.
Why It’s Similar:
Urban open-world structure
Crime-focused story
Cars, motorcycles, and street races
Police and criminal missions
Optional activities and collectibles
Vehicle theft and high-speed chases
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: Sleeping Dogs is the best choice for players who want GTA-style exploration with better melee combat and a more concentrated crime story. Its version of Hong Kong remains one of the most memorable cities in the genre.
Buy Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition on GameBoost
4. Mafia III: Definitive Edition
Purchase Mafia III: Definitive Edition for a darker and more serious interpretation of the open-world crime formula. Set in 1968, the game follows Vietnam veteran Lincoln Clay as he builds a new criminal organization and takes revenge on the mobsters who murdered his surrogate family.
New Bordeaux is divided among criminal rackets that generate money and influence for the city’s different organizations. Lincoln gradually dismantles these operations before confronting their leaders and assigning captured territory to his own lieutenants. Those decisions affect loyalty within his organization and can create additional problems later.
Driving and shooting form the core of the action, with period vehicles, police pursuits, weapon dealers, and multiple approaches to enemy-controlled locations. The Definitive Edition includes the base game, its three story expansions, and the previously released bonus packs.
Why It’s Similar:
Open-world city controlled by criminal factions
Driving, gunfights, and police pursuits
Criminal empire management
Story missions and optional rackets
Vehicle collection and customization
Mature crime narrative
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: Mafia III is more repetitive than GTA V, but its story, setting, soundtrack, and criminal-territory system make it worth playing. It is especially suitable for players who prefer revenge stories over GTA’s satirical tone.
Buy Mafia III: Definitive Edition on GameBoost
5. Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 exchanges contemporary Los Angeles for Night City, a futuristic metropolis controlled by corporations, mercenaries, and criminal gangs. You play as V, a customizable mercenary whose routine heist goes disastrously wrong.
Like GTA, the game allows you to drive across a large city, accept criminal jobs, purchase vehicles, use a wide range of weapons, and attract police attention. Its role-playing systems add considerably more character progression, dialogue choices, equipment management, and build customization.
You can specialize in firearms, melee weapons, stealth, cyberware, or hacking. Vehicle combat and the updated police system also make open-world confrontations more dynamic than they were when the game originally launched.
Why It’s Similar:
Large city filled with criminal activity
Cars, motorcycles, and vehicle combat
Police response system
Story missions and smaller contract jobs
Apartments, weapons, clothing, and vehicles to purchase
Open-ended combat encounters
Available on: PC, macOS, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2
My Verdict: Cyberpunk 2077 is the best futuristic alternative to GTA. It cannot match GTA’s range of civilian activities, but its character progression, combat options, and atmosphere make Night City rewarding to explore.
Buy Cyberpunk 2077 on GameBoost
6. Red Dead Redemption 2
Buy Red Dead Redemption 2 if the part of GTA you enjoy most is Rockstar’s approach to open-world design. Its setting is completely different, but the underlying structure, attention to detail, reactive law enforcement, optional encounters, and mission design are unmistakably related.
Arthur Morgan is a member of the Van der Linde gang, a group of outlaws struggling to survive as the American frontier becomes increasingly controlled by organized law enforcement. The gang commits robberies, steals valuables, relocates its camp, and repeatedly attracts the attention of local authorities and federal agents.
Horses replace cars, and small frontier towns replace modern cities, but the freedom remains. You can rob stores, hold up travelers, steal wagons, hunt animals, play poker, collect bounties, or simply explore the countryside between missions.
Why It’s Similar:
Developed by Rockstar Games
Expansive and reactive open world
Robberies and outlaw activities
Law enforcement and bounty systems
Large story campaign
Numerous side activities and random encounters
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: Red Dead Redemption 2 is the obvious recommendation for anyone who wants Rockstar’s world design without returning to Los Santos. It is slower and more deliberate than GTA, but considerably more immersive.
Buy Red Dead Redemption 2 on GameBoost
7. Just Cause 3
Just Cause 3 focuses almost entirely on the freedom to travel quickly and destroy expensive government property. Rico Rodriguez returns to the Mediterranean republic of Medici to overthrow General Di Ravello, liberating towns and military bases along the way.
Rico’s grappling hook, parachute, and wingsuit completely change how you move around the open world. You can attach enemies to explosive containers, connect vehicles, hijack helicopters in midair, or glide directly into a military installation.
The game lacks GTA’s detailed crime economy and everyday city activities, but it excels when you want vehicles, explosions, and a map that can function as one enormous playground. Few open-world games make improvised destruction feel this satisfying.
Why It’s Similar:
Large open world
Numerous land, air, and sea vehicles
Freely hijacked vehicles
Explosive sandbox gameplay
Military pursuit system
Missions mixed with optional activities
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: Just Cause 3 is GTA with less crime drama and substantially more destruction. It is an excellent choice when your favorite part of GTA is ignoring the mission objective and seeing how much chaos you can create.
8. Schedule I
Purchase Schedule I if you enjoy the business-building side of GTA Online. Beginning with limited resources in Hyland Point, you manufacture products, find customers, recruit dealers, purchase properties, and gradually expand a small operation into a larger criminal network.
The game combines business management with first-person exploration. You must transport products around the city, avoid or confront law enforcement, manage employees, and reinvest profits into better properties and production equipment.
Schedule I is still smaller and less cinematic than GTA, but it examines the type of criminal enterprise management that GTA Online often simplifies. It can also be played cooperatively, allowing friends to divide production, delivery, and expansion duties.
Why It’s Similar:
Open-world criminal activity
Properties and business expansion
Police attention and illegal operations
Vehicles and city exploration
Cooperative multiplayer
Progression from minor jobs to a criminal empire
Available on: PC
My Verdict: Schedule I is the best recommendation for players who enjoy running GTA Online businesses more than following story missions. Its production and distribution systems make building a criminal empire feel unusually hands-on.
9. The Precinct
The Precinct presents a GTA-style city from the opposite side of the law. Set in 1983, it places you in the role of rookie police officer Nick Cordell Jr. as he patrols Averno City and investigates the circumstances surrounding his father’s death.
Rather than committing crimes and escaping the police, you respond to robberies, pursue suspects, issue tickets, call for backup, and arrest criminals. The city generates incidents dynamically, so routine patrols can unexpectedly turn into shootouts or extended vehicle chases.
The isometric viewpoint creates a different feel, but the open city, traffic, destructible environments, crime system, vehicles, and police pursuits make it an interesting reversal of GTA’s usual setup.
Why It’s Similar:
Open-world city filled with dynamic crime
Vehicle pursuits
Gunfights and street confrontations
Cars and helicopters
Story missions mixed with procedural events
Reactive law-enforcement systems
Available on: PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
My Verdict: The Precinct works because it uses many familiar GTA systems while changing your role within them. Chasing suspects through a crowded city offers a refreshing alternative to being the person trying to escape.
Best Games Like GTA on Each Platform
Best Games Like GTA on PC
PC players can access every game included in this list. Saints Row: The Third Remastered, Watch Dogs 2, and Sleeping Dogs are the closest traditional GTA alternatives, while Schedule I offers a more detailed criminal-business simulator.
Players looking to build a larger open-world collection can browse PC game keys for other city sandboxes, action games, and crime-focused releases.
Best Games Like GTA on PS5
Cyberpunk 2077, Saints Row: The Third Remastered, and The Precinct have dedicated PS5 versions. Watch Dogs 2, Sleeping Dogs, Mafia III, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Just Cause 3 can also be played through backward compatibility.
The broader PlayStation game keys category is a useful place to check for other open-world games available across PS4 and PS5.
Best Games Like GTA on Xbox
Xbox players have access to nearly every game on the list, with Schedule I being the main PC-only exception. Saints Row, Watch Dogs 2, Sleeping Dogs, Mafia III, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Just Cause 3, and The Precinct are all available on Xbox hardware.
The Xbox game keys selection includes options for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, although platform and regional compatibility should always be checked before purchasing.
Best Games Like GTA on Nintendo Switch
Nintendo players have the fewest options from this list. Cyberpunk 2077 is available on Nintendo Switch 2, providing an open-world city filled with vehicles, criminal jobs, police responses, and story-driven missions.
Players using the original Nintendo Switch will need to look beyond this particular list. The Nintendo Switch game keys category can be used to explore other open-world and action games available for Nintendo hardware.
FAQs About Games Like GTA
Q: What game is most similar to GTA?
A: Saints Row: The Third Remastered is the closest overall alternative because it combines an urban open world with criminal gangs, stolen vehicles, police pursuits, weapons, customization, and optional co-op. Watch Dogs 2 is another strong choice for players who prefer a more believable modern city.
Q: What is the best serious game like GTA?
A: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition and Mafia III: Definitive Edition are the strongest options for serious crime stories. Sleeping Dogs focuses on undercover police work and the Triads, while Mafia III follows a revenge campaign against organized crime.
Q: Which game like GTA has the best open world?
A: Red Dead Redemption 2 has the most detailed and reactive open world on this list. Cyberpunk 2077 provides the best dense urban environment, while Watch Dogs 2 offers the most interactive modern city.
Q: Are there any multiplayer games like GTA Online?
A: Saints Row: The Third Remastered supports two-player online co-op, while Schedule I allows players to build a criminal business together. Red Dead Online provides Rockstar’s multiplayer sandbox formula in a Wild West setting.
Q: Which game is best for building a criminal empire?
A: Schedule I provides the most detailed criminal-business systems, allowing you to manufacture products, recruit dealers, purchase properties, and expand your operation. Mafia III also lets you dismantle rival rackets and distribute captured territory among your lieutenants.
Q: Which game like GTA is best for low-end PCs?
A: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, Mafia III, and Just Cause 3 are generally more approachable for older PCs than Cyberpunk 2077 or newer releases such as The Precinct. Exact performance still depends on your hardware and selected settings.
Final Words
The best GTA alternative depends on which part of Rockstar’s formula you want to replace. Saints Row: The Third Remastered delivers the closest combination of crime, vehicles, customization, and unrestricted chaos, while Watch Dogs 2 adds hacking to a recognizable modern city.
Sleeping Dogs and Mafia III are better choices for focused crime stories. Cyberpunk 2077 provides a futuristic urban sandbox, and Red Dead Redemption 2 carries Rockstar’s open-world design into a completely different era. Schedule I is particularly appealing for players who spend most of their GTA Online time managing businesses.
None of these games reproduces every part of GTA, but each takes one of its strongest ideas and develops it in a different direction. That variety makes them worth playing even if Los Santos still feels like home.
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“ Filip Premuš is a seasoned gaming content writer specializing in titles like Steal a Brainrot, Old School RuneScape, and other popular online games. With a sharp focus on accuracy, updates, and in-game strategy, he creates comprehensive guides that help players stay ahead of the meta and make informed decisions.”
