14 Games Like GTA for 2026 (Open World, Crime, Sandbox Chaos)

Grand Theft Auto works because the city is the game. The missions, the heists, the story, they all sit on top of a world that keeps living whether you engage with it or not. Pedestrians have routines. Traffic flows. The police escalate from one cop to a helicopter and a roadblock if you push your luck. The genius of GTA is that it hands you a believable place and a pile of tools, then trusts you to find your own fun in the gap between the scripted content.

That freedom is the real hook. You can follow the story, or you can ignore it for hours and just drive, cause chaos, and watch the systems react. The driving model, the wanted system, the radio stations, the side activities, they all exist to make the world feel like somewhere you inhabit rather than a menu of missions. Here are 14 games that capture different parts of that, organized by what you loved most about Grand Theft Auto.

If You Love the Open-World Crime Sandbox

These games nail the steal-anything, do-anything loop in a living city that reacts to your choices.

Saints Row (2022) and Saints Row: The Third

The most direct GTA relative. You build a criminal empire in an open city, run missions, steal vehicles, and cause escalating chaos, with a tone that leans hard into comedy and spectacle rather than crime drama.

Why GTA fans will like it: The core loop is GTA's loop. Same open-world structure, same mission-and-mayhem rhythm, same drive-anywhere city. Saints Row: The Third in particular is remembered as one of the most entertaining sandboxes ever made, trading realism for pure absurdity. If you played GTA mostly to mess around in the world, Saints Row is built for exactly that.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch (older entries)
• Vibe: GTA's crime sandbox with the seriousness turned down and the chaos turned up
• Co-op: Yes, online
• Price: ~$20 to $40

---

Watch Dogs 2

A vibrant open-world San Francisco where your main weapon is your phone. You play a hacker who can control traffic lights, cars, security systems, and other people's devices to pull off heists and mess with the city.

Why GTA fans will like it: It keeps the open-city playground and the mission structure but adds a layer of systemic hacking that opens up new ways to approach every objective. The world is dense, colorful, and traversable on foot, by car, or by hijacking machines remotely. It is the most modern-feeling GTA-adjacent city on this list.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
• Vibe: Open-world crime playground built around hacking
• Co-op: Yes, seamless online
• Price: ~$20

---

Sleeping Dogs

An open-world crime game set in a faithfully recreated Hong Kong. You play an undercover cop infiltrating a triad organization, and the city is dense with markets, neon, and street life.

Why GTA fans will like it: It delivers the GTA structure with a sharper martial-arts combat system and a more focused story. The driving is solid, the world is detailed, and the undercover premise gives the missions a tension that GTA's broader sandbox sometimes lacks. An underrated standout in the genre.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One (Definitive Edition)
• Vibe: GTA in Hong Kong with excellent melee combat
• Co-op: No
• Price: ~$20

---

If You Want a Deeper Story and City

These games trade some sandbox freedom for denser worlds and stronger narratives.

Cyberpunk 2077

A first-person open-world RPG set in Night City, the densest and most detailed urban environment in the genre. You build a mercenary, take on jobs, and shape the story through your choices and your character's wiring.

Why GTA fans will like it: Night City is what happens when you push GTA's living-city idea to its limit and wrap it in RPG systems. The driving, the open world, and the freedom to take jobs your own way are all here, plus character builds, branching dialogue, and a story with real weight. After a rough launch, it became one of the best open-world games available.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
• Vibe: GTA's living city as a deep first-person RPG
• Co-op: No
• Price: ~$30 to $60

---

Mafia: Definitive Edition

A linear, story-driven crime game set in 1930s America. It trades the open sandbox for a tightly authored gangster narrative across an era-accurate city.

Why GTA fans will like it: It scratches the crime-drama itch that GTA's story missions reach for, with a period setting and a focus on character. The city is explorable, the driving is deliberately weighty and period-appropriate, and the story is the most cinematic on this list. Best for players who loved GTA for its storytelling more than its chaos.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
• Vibe: A focused 1930s gangster story in a drivable city
• Co-op: No
• Price: ~$30

---

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar's own open-world masterpiece, set in the dying days of the American frontier. The same studio that built GTA applied its world-building obsession to a Western, and the result is the most detailed open world they have ever made.

Why GTA fans will like it: It is GTA's DNA in a different skin. A massive, reactive world, a deep story, systemic NPCs, and a wanted system that punishes recklessness. The pace is slower and more deliberate than GTA, but the sense of inhabiting a living place is unmatched. If you loved GTA for the world rather than the speed, this is essential.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Vibe: Rockstar's open world at its most detailed, in the Old West
• Co-op: Yes, via Red Dead Online
• Price: ~$30 to $60

---

If You Want the Chaos and Spectacle

These games prioritize destruction, mayhem, and over-the-top sandbox fun.

Just Cause 4

An open-world action game built entirely around physics-based chaos. You have a grappling hook, a wingsuit, and a parachute, and the whole world is a playground for stunts and explosions.

Why GTA fans will like it: If the rampage was your favorite part of GTA, Just Cause is the genre distilled. Huge open map, vehicles of every kind, and traversal tools that turn movement itself into a toy. The story is forgettable, but the sandbox is one of the most explosive ever built.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Vibe: Open-world physics chaos with a grappling hook
• Co-op: No
• Price: ~$15

---

Saints Row IV

The point where Saints Row stopped pretending to be a crime game and became a superhero sandbox. You get superpowers, fight an alien invasion, and tear through a simulated city.

Why GTA fans will like it: It takes the GTA open-world framework and removes every limit. Super-speed, super-jumps, energy blasts. The city becomes a parkour and destruction playground. It is the most over-the-top game on this list, and it knows exactly what it is.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
• Vibe: Open-world chaos with superpowers
• Co-op: Yes, online
• Price: ~$15

---

Crackdown 2

An open-world action game where you play a genetically enhanced agent who can leap between rooftops and throw cars. Collecting agility orbs to level up your jumps is weirdly addictive.

Why GTA fans will like it: It keeps the open city and the vehicular mayhem but adds vertical traversal and a power-fantasy progression loop. The world becomes a jungle gym, and the cooperative chaos of cleaning out gang strongholds with a friend is a highlight.

The short version:

• Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (backward compatible)
• Vibe: Open-world destruction with superhuman traversal
• Co-op: Yes, online
• Price: ~$15

---

If You Love the Driving

These games put the vehicles and the open road front and center.

Watch Dogs: Legion

Set in a near-future London where you can recruit and play as nearly any NPC in the city. The open world is one of the most ambitious in the genre.

Why GTA fans will like it: A drivable, dense city with mission variety and a systemic twist that GTA never tried: a rotating cast of playable citizens. The London setting is gorgeous, and the freedom to approach objectives by driving, hacking, or stealth keeps the sandbox fresh.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
• Vibe: Open-world London where anyone is playable
• Co-op: Yes, online
• Price: ~$20

---

Driver: San Francisco

A pure driving game wrapped in an open city, with one wild mechanic: you can instantly "shift" into any other car on the road, body-hopping across the entire city in a blink.

Why GTA fans will like it: If the driving was the best part of GTA for you, Driver: San Francisco is built around it. The handling is arcade-perfect, the city is large, and the shift mechanic turns chases into something no other game does. A cult classic worth tracking down.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 (backward compatible)
• Vibe: Open-city driving with instant car-to-car teleporting
• Co-op: Yes
• Price: ~$15

---

Yakuza / Like a Dragon series

A dense, story-rich series set in a meticulously recreated slice of a Japanese city. Not an open world in the GTA sense, but a living urban district packed with side activities, restaurants, arcades, and combat.

Why GTA fans will like it: It captures the feeling of a city you can lose yourself in. The main story is serious crime drama; the side content is pure, joyful chaos. If GTA's side activities and city texture mattered more to you than the open road, the Yakuza games deliver that density better than almost anything.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
• Vibe: A living Japanese city, crime drama, and endless side content
• Co-op: No
• Price: ~$20 to $40

---

Mafia III

Set in a 1968 New Orleans analogue, this entry trades the previous game's tight linearity for a larger open world and a revenge-driven story about taking down a crime organization district by district.

Why GTA fans will like it: It blends the open-world crime sandbox with a strong narrative and a memorable setting. The driving and gunplay are solid, and the district-takeover structure gives the world a clear sense of progress. The soundtrack alone is worth the entry.

The short version:

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Vibe: Open-world crime in a 1968 Southern city
• Co-op: No
• Price: ~$20

---

Quick Reference: All 14 Games at a Glance

Game	Platforms	Co-op	Best For
Saints Row	PC, PS, Xbox, Switch	Yes	Closest GTA sandbox
Watch Dogs 2	PC, PS, Xbox	Yes	Hacking-driven open city
Sleeping Dogs	PC, PS4, Xbox One	No	GTA in Hong Kong, great melee
Cyberpunk 2077	PC, PS5, Xbox Series	No	Deepest city and RPG systems
Mafia: Definitive	PC, PS, Xbox	No	Cinematic 1930s crime story
Red Dead Redemption 2	PC, PS4, Xbox One	Yes	Most detailed open world
Just Cause 4	PC, PS4, Xbox One	No	Physics chaos sandbox
Saints Row IV	PC, PS4, Xbox, Switch	Yes	Superpowered open-world mayhem
Crackdown 2	Xbox	Yes	Vertical traversal and destruction
Watch Dogs: Legion	PC, PS, Xbox	Yes	Play-as-anyone London
Driver: San Francisco	PC, PS3, Xbox 360	Yes	Best pure open-city driving
Yakuza / Like a Dragon	PC, PS, Xbox	No	Dense city, side content
Mafia III	PC, PS4, Xbox One	No	1968 open-world crime

Build Your Own Open-World Game

If playing these makes you want to build a city of your own, that urge is worth following. A full GTA-scale world is a large project, but the genre breaks down into clear, well-understood systems: a drivable vehicle controller, a wanted or heat system that escalates, a mission manager, and a street layout with traffic and pedestrians on routines.

Start small. One drivable district with working traffic teaches you most of what an open-world game needs, and you can grow it from there. Summer Engine is compatible with Godot 4 and lets you build through conversation, so you can describe a car that handles the way you want, a police response that ramps up, or a mission that hands the player a getaway, and iterate on it together. The open-world adventure template handles the foundational world-streaming and traversal systems so you can focus on what makes your city worth driving through.

For a step-by-step look at building with AI assistance, read how to make games with AI. And if you came to GTA for different reasons, the chaos, the survival, or the multiplayer, our guides to games like Rust, games like Fortnite, and games like Cyberpunk-style RPGs in Skyrim point you toward more ideas worth stealing. Browse the full template library or download Summer Engine to start building.