GTA VI gets a PEGI 18 rating, and the listing disappears hours later
PEGI rated Grand Theft Auto VI 18 for graphic violence, sexual themes and drug use. The page was taken down later on October 2, but its text had already been copied.
Grand Theft Auto VI has been rated PEGI 18 by the Pan European Game Information board. The listing went up on PEGI's website on October 2, one day after the ESRB rated the game M for Mature. Later the same day the page was pulled.
By 11:39 a.m. PT the listing showed only "The requested page could not be found." PEGI hasn't explained the removal. IGN has asked the board for comment and had not received a reply when it updated its report. The text was copied before it vanished: users on X captured it, among them iGrandTheftAuto.com, which posted "Grand Theft Auto VI PEGI rating is now up!" IGN, Eurogamer and GamesRadar+ quote the same wording, and PC Gamer has also reported on the deleted page.
PEGI gives three reasons for the 18 rating: "strong graphic violence, strong sexual themes and use of illegal drugs."
What the listing says
On violence, PEGI writes that the open world lets players harm any character, whether civilian, criminal or police. In the board's words:
Violence is bloody with a high degree of realism, with certain weapons being able to cause greater damage such as detailed decapitation and dismemberment.
Drugs get the most specific description. According to PEGI, drug use is "frequent and prominent". Players can take drugs with other characters or straight from their inventory, and the listing singles out cocaine: the player can carry it and snort it "directly from their hand at any time." Eurogamer notes that this is new for the series. GTA 5 and GTA Online have optional bongs, but they are normally found in apartments the player owns, not carried around the map.
On sexual content, the listing mentions nudity, scenes of intercourse and occasional scenes of sexual fetishes. In night clubs the player can pay for private dances, during which the game lets them put their hands on the dancers' breasts and buttocks. Eurogamer says another age rating published earlier that day suggested GTA VI could be the first game in the series to show sex scenes directly, and that the PEGI text supports this.
IGN lists the rest. Domestic animals can be harmed, though in less detail than people. "Fk" is used prominently and "ct" occasionally, and PEGI says discriminatory language can be heard on TV shows and radio stations.
The listing also notes that players can buy in-game items. It doesn't say what that covers. IGN points out that in August it was reported Rockstar would not put microtransactions or generative AI in the game, so the note may mean something else. Rockstar hasn't said.
The story, according to PEGI
PEGI also gives a brief story summary. Players control Jason Duval or Lucia Caminos, two criminals who end up in a conspiracy after a robbery goes wrong, and who get more and more involved in crime in Vice City. That matches what Rockstar's trailers have shown so far, which makes it the least surprising part of the listing.
Why PEGI took the page down is still unexplained; a reply to IGN's request could settle it.
