Vice City is GTA 6's fictional Miami. Here is how Rockstar describes it, and how outlets and creators have compared it with the real city.
Vice City is GTA 6's version of Miami
Vice City, the main city of GTA 6, is Rockstar's fictional take on Miami. Rockstar itself never names Miami, but outlets are in no doubt: Kotaku calls Miami 'the real-life inspiration' behind GTA 6's Vice City and says the game is set in 'a fictitious version of the Florida city'. PC Gamer describes Vice City as 'inspired by real-life Miami proper'.
Vice City sits in Leonida, the game's version of Florida. Rockstar's synopsis opens with 'Vice City, USA', and the 'Only in Leonida' section begins with 'Home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond'.
How Rockstar describes the city
Rockstar's Vice City page has the tagline 'We're a long way from the '80s, but Vice City is still the sun and fun capital of America.' It continues: 'The glamour, hustle, and greed of America captured in a single city.'
It then names four neighbourhoods. Rockstar does not link any of them to a real Miami district, and readers can draw their own comparisons:
- Ocean Beach, with 'pastel art deco hotels and bright white sands'.
- Little Cuba and its 'bustling panaderías'.
- The Tisha-Wocka flea market and its 'bootleg brands'.
- The VC Port, 'the cruise ship capital of the world'.
The trailer recreated in real Miami
The best-known Miami comparison came from French YouTuber CyrilMP4. Kotaku reports that he and some friends flew to Miami to recreate scenes from the first GTA 6 trailer, pointing out landmarks and areas that appear in both the trailer and the real city, then edited the shots side by side.
Kotaku was impressed by how close the match was: the comparison shows 'how close Rockstar has gotten to perfectly recreating a real-world location', and the writer sometimes needed the video's labels to tell the game from reality. That is a creator's comparison and an outlet's reaction, not a Rockstar statement about which streets it copied.
A return to the 2002 Vice City
Vice City first appeared in the 2002 game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, set in the 1980s. GTA 6 brings the city back in the present day, and Rockstar's line about being 'a long way from the '80s' acknowledges the gap. GamesRadar notes that returning players will recognise neighbourhoods such as Ocean Beach and Little Cuba. PC Gamer adds that some early clips recall the original's Ocean View Hotel and Vice City International Airport.
Rockstar leans on that history in its marketing too. The pre-order bonus is the Vintage Vice City Pack, pitched as a chance to 'flash back to when the neon burned brightest', with a weapon pattern inspired by Tommy Vercetti's palm tree shirt.
How big Vice City is
Rockstar has not published a size. According to YouTuber TGG, who says Rockstar North's head of development, Rob Nelson, gave him the figures during a preview (reported by Kotaku), Vice City itself is twice the size of Los Santos from GTA 5, and Vice City with its suburbs is 11 times bigger than Los Santos and its surroundings. Our map size article covers those figures in full.
What is not confirmed
Rockstar has not said how closely Vice City follows Miami's street layout or which real buildings it borrows. Parody is the point: a landmark that matches one Miami building does not mean the rest of the city follows the real map. Treat side-by-side comparisons as fan and outlet observations, and check Rockstar's own pages for anything official.
official screenshots
Screenshots: Rockstar Games, from the official GTA VI media page.
