The state of Leonida — Rockstar Games' fictional, Florida-inspired setting for Grand Theft Auto VI — has been revealed to the public gradually over more than three years, through a combination of an unauthorised data breach, two official trailers, a major screenshot drop, and supporting website material. Each successive disclosure has expanded fans' understanding of Leonida's scale, regional diversity, and tone, transforming it from a rumoured "Vice City return" into a confirmed multi-region open world spanning urban beaches, wetlands, archipelagos, industrial towns, and mountainous wilderness (Wikipedia, 2026; Collins and Richardson, 2025; Wilson, 2025).
Before any official confirmation, Leonida existed only in rumour. In 2018, The Know reported that the next Grand Theft Auto would be partly set in Vice City and South America, while in 2021 Tom Henderson suggested the map could evolve over time akin to Fortnite (Wikipedia, 2026). The first concrete glimpse came on 18 September 2022, when "teapotuberhacker" published roughly 90 work-in-progress videos showing approximately 50 minutes of unfinished footage on GTAForums. The clips confirmed a modern-day Vice City setting and depicted street layouts, interiors such as a diner and strip club, and traversal tests — effectively revealing the urban core of Leonida's map a full year before Rockstar's official announcement (Wikipedia, 2026). Although Rockstar issued takedowns and described the breach as a "network intrusion", the leak had already locked in fan expectations that Leonida's heart would be a Miami analogue.
On 5 December 2023 Rockstar released the first official GTA VI trailer, after a low-quality version leaked on Twitter the previous day (Wikipedia, 2026). The trailer formally confirmed the setting as the fictional US state of Leonida, based on Florida, with Vice City — itself modelled on Miami — as the centrepiece. Viewers were given quick cuts of Ocean Beach-style art-deco hotels, neon strips, beach crowds, swamp airboats, alligators, trailer parks, and stock-car racing, indicating that the map extended well beyond a single city into wetlands and rural hinterlands (Collins and Richardson, 2025). The trailer broke records for first-day non-music YouTube views (over 93 million in 24 hours) and established the broad geographic vocabulary — beaches, Everglades-like swamps, hick country — that subsequent reveals would name and detail (Wikipedia, 2026).
The second trailer, released on 6 May 2025, was the most substantive map reveal to date. Alongside the three-minute trailer, Rockstar updated its website with approximately 70 screenshots and named, described locations, giving the first granular tour of Leonida's regions (Wikipedia, 2026; Wilson, 2025). Six major areas were confirmed: Vice City (Miami analogue, including Ocean Beach, Little Cuba, and VC Port); the Leonida Keys (a Florida Keys-style tropical archipelago marketed as the "Gateway to Paradise"); Grassrivers (the Everglades-inspired wetlands); Port Gellhorn (a declining coastal town overtaken by the drug trade); Ambrosia (an industrial sugar-refinery region controlled by a biker gang); and Mount Kalaga National Park (the mountainous northern wilderness with hunting, fishing, and "hillbiliy mystics") (Wilson, 2025; Collins and Richardson, 2025). Rockstar reiterated the footage was captured on PlayStation 5 hardware after viewers questioned the graphical fidelity (Wikipedia, 2026). The trailer accumulated over 475 million cross-platform views in 24 hours, surpassing Deadpool & Wolverine's record (Wikipedia, 2026).
Since May 2025, further information has come from a deleted January 2025 Reddit post showing a 2021-era development build (deemed by Polygon the "worst leak of all time" for revealing no new map data) and a brief former-animator demo reel in November 2025 (Wikipedia, 2026). As of late 2025, no full overworld map has been officially published; fans anticipate a third trailer to fill remaining gaps, particularly the relative scale and connectivity of the six named regions (Wilson, 2025).
Leonida's reveal has followed a deliberate, escalating cadence: rumour (2018–2021), unauthorised leak (2022), atmospheric reveal (Trailer 1, 2023), and detailed regional breakdown (Trailer 2 plus screenshots, 2025). Each step has shifted public understanding from a vague "Vice City sequel" to a confirmed multi-biome Florida pastiche encompassing at least six named regions (Wikipedia, 2026; Wilson, 2025; Collins and Richardson, 2025).
Collins, R. and Richardson, T. (2025) What have we learned from Grand Theft Auto 6's second trailer? BBC News, 6 May. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g2grmrx4po (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026) Grand Theft Auto VI. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wilson, I. (2025) Every GTA 6 location revealed so far, GamesRadar+, 6 May. Available at: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/grand-theft-auto/gta-6-locations/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).