---
title: 'Ranking All GTA Games from Worst to Best'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnaT4AqVj8k'
video_id: 'mnaT4AqVj8k'
date: 2026-09-04
duration_sec: 1623
channel: 'penguinz0'
---

# Ranking All GTA Games from Worst to Best

> Source: [Ranking All GTA Games from Worst to Best](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnaT4AqVj8k)

## Summary

This video is a comprehensive tier list ranking all Grand Theft Auto games, from the worst to the best, based on a marathon playthrough of every unique title. The creator shares personal insights, experiences, and ratings for each game, from the original GTA to GTA V, including DLCs and spin-offs.

### Key Points

- **Marathon scope** [[00:43]] — Played and completed all 11 unique GTA titles plus DLCs. Only skipped GTA London, considered an expansion with minimal impact on the original.
- **Worst: GTA 1** [[01:40]] — Ranked last due to being clunky, arcadey, with poor car handling and visibility. It's a product of its time and lacks the polish of later entries.
- **Number 10: GTA 2** [[02:49]] — A drastic improvement over the first, with better car handling and more to do, but still suffers from visibility issues and is brutally difficult.
- **Number 9: GTA Advance** [[04:02]] — The Game Boy Advance version is the best iteration of the top-down era, with responsive controls, a real story, and characters. It is the best version of GTA 1 and 2's gameplay, though it causes motion sickness.
- **Number 8: GTA Chinatown Wars** [[05:22]] — The best top-down GTA, with a great story and humor, but it also causes motion sickness. The guns are inaccurate, making certain missions tedious, and it is very difficult.
- **Number 7: GTA 3** [[07:48]] — The first 3D GTA, aged well. The open world is a sandbox where players can make their own choices. The story is weak, but the driving is still fun, and cars are made easy to blow up, which adds an element of fun and thrill.
- **Number 6: Liberty City Stories** [[09:21]] — A great PSP game that elevates GTA 3's formula, with better driving and a much-improved story. Some missions are tedious, but overall a great experience.
- **Number 5: Vice City** [[10:27]] — A classic that aged really well, with solidified humor, fantastic writing, and better car handling than GTA 3. It has a wide variety of missions.
- **Number 4: Vice City Stories** [[11:20]] — Criminally underrated. Has one of the best protagonists (Vic) and great writing, with new mechanics and a great story. The game is rich and holds up by modern standards.
- **Number 3: GTA V** [[13:14]] — Has the best missions in the series with high highs and low lows. There are tedious missions with trailing and waiting for license plates. The writing and humor are the best in the franchise, but it feels rushed at the end, with the finale being a walkthrough of unceremoniously killing off the villains.
- **Number 2: San Andreas** [[16:31]] — A special game that holds up even by today's standards. CJ is a fantastic protagonist. The story is cinematic, and there are many mechanics like eating and exercising, adding to the immersion. The only complaint is the gate to the final mission requiring 20 territory holds.
- **Number 1: GTA IV** [[19:37]] — The favorite. Niko is the best character in the franchise, with deep development and near-perfect humor. The writing is tight, and the driving, while difficult, is rewarding with a high skill ceiling. The attention to detail is the best in the series.
- **DLC: Lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony** [[24:16]] — Lost and Damned is good but not special; Ballad of Gay Tony is remarkable, with some of the best moments in the main game, strong characters, and a lot of content.

## Transcript

I know you can tell just by looking at me. It's pretty clear I was born to be a professional athlete. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for me. I came down with a serious case of stick-it-to-the-mon meiosis
and also specced into a fun-sized build, which ended up being a pivot to gaming. So now this high-caliber athletic specimen does some serious gaming. And I've just completed another franchise marathon on my gaming channel where I play through every entry in a franchise.
I've done it for quite a few titles now, most notably Resident Evil where I played through all 30 Resident Evil games. I did Gears of War, Sly Cooper, and now I've just finished my most recent one, Grand Theft Auto.
I just played and completed all 11 unique GTA titles as well as the DLC. The only one I didn't do was GTA London, which was like an expansion for the first Grand Theft Auto or some shit like that.
I'm just going to keep it a buck. We're going to call these titties some boobs here. Let's just be honest, it wasn't going to change a whole lot about the first GTA. The first GTA is the only one that's just kind of rough in the franchise, spoiler alert,
and the DLC for it, from everything I saw, wasn't going to be changing that song. So I did not play that one, but I did do the Kitten Caboodle like the rest of it. So anyway, let's go ahead and put these puppies on a scientifically accurate tier list here,
ranking them from worst to best. All right, Bubble Buddies, time to dive in. Coming in at number 11, surprising absolutely nobody here, the worst Grand Theft Auto game is the first one.
Yucky. And the thing is, it's not even bad, per se, it's just not good. It's, you know, it's bad, it's just bad, it's rough, that's the thing, it's a product of its time, it's their first foray into this universe here, it's very arcadey, there's not a whole lot of meat on the bones, it's clunky, the cars control like you're throwing fucking punches in a dream,
Like, you barely have control over them, and you can't see far enough ahead of you to avoid collisions. So if you're trying to, like, floor it and go fast, which, it's GTA, everyone wants to go fast all the time, you're just going to hit, like, a thousand cars and a thousand buildings.
So it's just not fun. Like, it's okay. Like, I still had a good time with it just because of, like, the goofiness of it, so it's not even, like, the worst game ever. as far as like entire franchise catalogs go this being the worst one is better than some of like
the mid-games and other franchises as wild as that is to say because there is still some fun to be had with it but compared to everything else it's far and away the weakest moving into the
number 10 spot I think this also probably won't come as a surprise it's GTA 2 and GTA 2 is a game I actually put some time into when I was a kid and I remember really enjoying I never got super far. It was mainly just driving around and, like, hitting things and all that. Like, it was fun,
and it is just a drastic improvement over the first one. The car is handled better. There's more to do. It's less janky. You still have the same problems, though, where you can't really see
far enough ahead of you to avoid hitting things, so if you're trying to drive fast, it's going to be a fucking catastrophe, and you look like a clown for it. So you have to, like, you know, drive strategically, even driving the speed limit, obeying the road rules sometimes.
Also, these games are brutally difficult, by the way. If you have a star, Lord help you, you're probably going to just get thrown in cuffs in real life. They'll hunt you outside of the game. It is unreal how hard the police go in these games.
If you get a star, you are getting yanked out of that car frame one. It is unbelievable how quick they are to act. They are tough, tough games. but yeah GTA 2 I do think is better I did have fun with it but it's not amazing moving on to the
number nine spot this is going to go to Grand Theft Auto Advance so Grand Theft Auto Advance is the Game Boy Advance GTA game and this is just the best version of these two it takes what these
two did improves upon it fleshes it out it fleshes it out it's more responsive it's more fun you have a lot more to do. There is an actual story to care about.
There's characters there that make an actual experience worth going through instead of just being arcade-y and just randomly driving around hitting things and people. You actually have things that progress and
get you invested. It's a good game. This is the best iteration of what GTA 1 and 2 laid down. So, actually pretty solid. I don't even really have any
complaints about it other than the top down gives me a bit of motion sickness. As weak as that is to say out loud, for some reason, man, it's just the top down and like how everything moves in the
world, it just makes me queasy. It makes me a little nauseous. So like, while I didn't hate GTA Advance or anything, it's not a game I could pump any serious time into, so I didn't finish it. I didn't complete GTA Advance or anything,
which brings me to the number eight spot, which goes to Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars. So this is by far the best GTA top-down you can get.
This was the best version of this kind of top-down. Chinatown Wars takes all of this a step further and tells a really good story. Like, I really liked the characters they were introducing here.
It was fun. It maintained the humor. It maintained the silliness, and it actually looked really good. So this was on the DS, and I played the PSP port, and it's a fun top-down game, but once again, it still made me nauseous.
I put like two and a half hours into it or something like that, and by the end, man, my tummy was begging for release. Like, it was not feeling good. But this is a good game, and there are a lot of people that heavily glazed Chinatown Wars.
I understand why. I can only imagine as a kid playing this on a handheld device would be like really, really fun and memorable and a good experience. And even just playing it normally, I did like it up until I got really uncomfortably ill from the motion sickness.
And also one other thing about it, this shit is fucking hard too, man. there is a mission there where you have to protect someone while also trying to kill people that are trying to steal some loot and the guns the guns you know actually I do have a big complaint
here that I don't really have for GTA Advance, the guns in Chinatown Wars feel like they have a mind of their own, so you're like battling against the fucking ghosts in the machine there anytime you're firing weapons, and that was so annoying in that mission in particular,
because you drop like a rock when you get hit, you can take like a few bullets here in there, like, you're not super spongy. Obviously, you're not super spongy in none of the GTA games, and you're like the juggernaut or anything,
but in Chinatown Wars, you are like paper. And they tear through your ass. So, like, when you're getting shot, and you're missing everything trying to return fire, it is annoying. That actually did piss me off in that mission in particular, because you have to restart the whole thing. Also,
the person that you have to protect, she can die really, really quick if they just decide to, you know, blast her. So, yeah, that was kind of annoying, because the guns aren't accurate, so it made missions like that, really tedious, but I still think it is like the best top-down GTA. Now we get into
number seven, and it's the first foray into 3D, Grand Theft Auto 3, a game near and dear to my boners. I pumped so much time into this game without ever beating it when I was a kid,
because I just got lost in the open world, running people over, getting stars, you know, just going ballistic. It was the first game I can recall that had a sandbox like this,
where you truly can just make your own choices, do whatever you want. There's not really a story in the game to care about. Like, yes, there is a narrative, but it really sucks. You play as Claude Speed, who's a mute, doesn't say anything, has no personality. Like, it's
very lame. So the story's not great, but it does introduce the story as like a, like, like a pivotal point of the game, which is cool, it's just not that great.
What is, though, is everything else. Where you can just do so much shit. And it is a game that I think has actually aged really well. The driving is still good.
The cars blow up far easier than you're used to if you've never played GTA 3. The cars, they're made out of glass. Like, they are going to break and blow up on you constantly for even the slightest finger bender, but even that's kind of fun too, because it's
high stakes and it's thrilling, so I really, really like GTA 3, I think it aged much better than I even thought it would, so this was a banger, then we move into the number 6 spot,
and at number 6, this one took a little bit of deliberation, but it's going to go to Liberty City Stories, Liberty City Stories was the PSP game, I never actually played it, so I
I played it for the first time in the marathon. What a banger. It takes GTA 3 and elevates it across the board. The driving is better, though I think they introduced a new mechanic where every driver on the road is trying to buttfuck you,
so they're constantly turning into you when you're trying to drive. Your tires are getting blown out constantly. They definitely introduced a few new things there, but the big improvements are in the handling of the vehicles and the story.
Liberty City Stories is such a good narrative. I loved it. Some of the missions blow. Some of the missions are very tedious and a bit of a snoozer. That's okay, though.
I mean, I get it. It's PSP. There are limitations, and they did want to deliver, like, a, you know, AAA big-budget experience on handheld. I think they knocked it out of the park because that's what I got. Even with some of the boring missions in there, it didn't matter.
It was such a good game. Liberty City Stories really surprised me. Loved Liberty City Stories. Next up, we have the classic Vice City, another game near and dear to my boners. Love Vice City. It's aged really well.
This is when the humor really started to get solidified in the franchise here. I think the writing in this was fantastic. It was super fun. Again, the cars blow up super easily, but that's not that big of a deal.
The handling's a lot better than it was in the 3, and there's just a lot to do, a wide variety of missions to do. So Vice City absolutely flaps. I also just realized...
Did I run out of... No, no, no, I got it. I thought I was running out of space on the tier list here, but no, we're still good. So yeah, Vice City has aged really well. It's extremely good.
And that brings me to one that I really want to gush in grannies over, which is Vice City Stories. I think this game is criminally slept on. I don't hear a lot of people talk about it, but maybe I just am not tapped into the wider conversation in the community. This game has one of the best protagonists, period.
Vic is just so hype, and arguably even, like, a good guy compared to the rest of the GTA protags. Like, obviously, still commits mass murder, does a lot of terrible, fucked up things,
but there are many moments where he is actually just doing something to genuinely try and help. Vic is a great, great character. and he experiences so much misery.
The woman he loves going through hell there, eventually losing her. I got spoilers, but I mean, this game's fucking like 20 years old. If you're going to care about spoilers here, grow up. Put some hair on your chest.
Rub some dirt in it. Vic is just so good, is the point I'm making. A great protagonist. And he's surrounded by other great characters, too. Right City Stories has amazing writing. It has an amazing story.
There is so much to do. It also adds new mechanics, so even the hand-to-hand combat was improved in Vice City Stories over Vice City. They actually put a lot of work into Vice City Stories.
You know the fucking Phil Collins concert? It is such a joy playing through Vice City Stories, and I still cannot believe that that was on the PSP. even by today's standards
by modern standards if that game released today it would still be a like highly glazed title even by today's modern standards it is just so rich with so much to do
and so much to appreciate about it I'm a big Vice City Stories guy I think I'll finish it here before getting back getting more into that in the number 3 slot GTA 5
So GTA V was the final game in my Grand Theft Auto marathon, and it is still such a banger, which I'm sure no surprise hearing that. Grand Theft Auto V I think has the best missions in the series It has the highest highs but it also has some extremely stinky missions like working the 9 where you just moving things around moving some crates around and it goes on for so long
And there's a few missions like that, you know, another mission where you're just trailing a car in the helicopter, which trailing missions are nothing new in the franchise, obviously. GTA has been rife with trailing missions, and I just do not really like them.
They're very rarely fun or engaging. That is just one thing that I have a complaint across the board, but some of them are better than others. In GTA V, I think it has some really bad ones, like in the helicopter where you're just looking and following some trucks
across the entire world slowly. I don't know, there's just so many moments like that. Or when you have to wait for the right license plate and you're just sitting there waiting as cars will slowly peel out.
There are just a few moments like that where it just has some truly boring missions. but on the flip side of that coin they have some of the best missions in the series in fact hands down I say it has the best missions in the series
there are so many amazing moments here so many great missions obviously iconic lines I think the writing here has the best humor in the franchise I think the comedy really lands in five
they fucking nailed it there's a reason why it's so quoted even to this day with memes and all kinds of, like, you know, mods and different kinds of videos and exploring GTA 5.
It is a classic. It is an incredible game. It is a masterpiece. I absolutely fucking love it. One of the other complaints I have, though, is that it feels very rushed at the end of the story. And I know they were supposed to have story DLC that they ended up shit-canning because online was just so lucrative
with way too many of the balloons to be made there, so they just abandoned it or whatever. but as a consequence of that the finale is kind of a letdown, it's very underwhelming, you end up just
all the people that have wronged you all the big bads that have been built up over the course of their, you know, 17 hours well now you just get all the info on their whereabouts and then you one by one go and just kill them unceremoniously
and that's just kind of lame especially when you compare it to like for example, Vice City Stories Primactic Final Showdown is so good and it has one of my favorite quotes
you're a good guy in a bad man's game that is something that gets said to Vic at the very end right before the final showdown like there are so many great finales and GTA 5
built up such an amazing cast of characters and bad guys and then you just go and just randomly kill them on the street at the end just kind of a let down there but overall I think it's just
an amazing game. I think GTA 5 is easily top three. I was very close to putting it top two. I will say one, two, and three are neck and neck and neck here. Like, there are only slight things
that give them an advantage in my eyes. So, moving on to number two, it's San Andreas. GTA San Andreas, man I know it's kind of cliche to say it
but that game, as it is special, man it holds up so well even by today's standards and that's something that I can say across almost the entire franchise save for the top down
the games are just still so good so polished, so rich so San Andreas has my second favorite protagonist, CJ CJ, man, we get to go on an adventure.
We go from Grove Street up to the highest possible level. And this is very clear the first time they start experimenting with cinema. So you have busting through the billboard moments.
You have being chased by the helicopters and then cops that are crawling on your car, like across your windshield and shit. You have so many glorious set pieces, so many missions,
and there's so many mechanics here, such as like needing to eat, but if you overeat, you start to get fat, so you need to go to the gym to work out, get your fitness up, you know, put on some muscle, which makes you more sexually appealing to women, and makes you like a better killer as well,
so you get more stamina, you can swim for longer if you start training your lungs, There's a lot in this game, and all of it is so good. The only thing I didn't like about San Andreas is, in order to access the final mission,
you have to do 20 of, like, the gang war activity, where you have to hold, like, 20 territories there, but since they're constantly being attacked, it was just such a nuisance, just such a headache.
That's the only thing I didn't like was locking it behind that activity. I actually liked the activity, but having to just spam it in order to get the final mission really was deflating. Didn't love that. But basically everything else about San Andreas, I loved.
It also has my favorite side character in the series, The Truth. The game doesn't have a single bad character, but it also has the single best side character in GTA, and one of my top five favorite side characters in gaming, The Truth.
I thought he was just such a fantastic character. I love that guy. And, man, one other thing. I didn't mention this. I went through and have been reviewing all of these UTA games throughout my franchise marathon.
So I don't want to just regurgitate my reviews here. But, bro, it is incredible what they were able to accomplish with San Andreas. It is just that good. If you've never played it, I highly recommend you do so.
I'd be surprised if you haven't played it. I feel like most people have. But if you haven't, you've got to fucking play it. And speaking of games you've got to play, it's GTA IV. That is my favorite Grand Theft Auto game.
It was my favorite one coming into this marathon. And I actually thought San Andreas might squeak out the W here with the number one spot in my heart. But I've got to tell you, GTA still holds it.
It's so fucking tight, though. It's such a tight squeeze. They're both masterpieces. Now, also, if you do play GTA IV, either don't play it on PC, or if you play it on PC, get Fusion Fix,
because apparently it's just fully broken if you don't have that. I played it with Fusion Fix. But anyway, GTA IV. Nico is my favorite character in the franchise, just barely over CJ. Nico has so much character development throughout this game and has like this is a darker story There is a lot of fucked up things that happen to and around
him, yet it still maintains such a high level of humor that mostly lands from start to finish. And Nico, from the very beginning to the very end, is a source of laughs, and a
source of, like, very genuine character moments that I think are just extraordinary and explored really well. The writing is so tight. The writing is so good. The conversations he has with
UL Paper, oh my goodness, that's fucking cinema. I love, love the story. And I know a lot of people with GTA 4 hate the driving, and that's because it did something
very different with the driving than everyone was expecting, and obviously what everyone was used to. It made it much floatier and very, very hard to control. Sometimes it feels like a fucking bucking bronco.
but I kind of liked it. I fucked with it, honestly. Everything, it led to, like, a level of skill expression being able to control these vehicles because even just the slightest misstep has your car, you know,
fly off into the, you know, the stratosphere. And every mission becomes much more intense going from point A to point B because there's a high likelihood you just total your shit on the way there.
Like, the driving was difficult. If you want to turn, you best be letting the game know a mile in advance that you have intention to turn so that way it can prepare it for you. Because if you try to just like handbrake or try and like, you know, F key and turn, you're not going to do well.
You're not going to successfully get anywhere. I found the most successful for like a little snaking where I peel out and then come in real quick. But, like, there is a lot of skill required to drive in the game, which was very, very different for the franchise.
But I think it works really well amidst the chaos that you're experiencing throughout. And as you already know, there's a lot to do here. You can cruise the World Wide Web. You can set up dates, go on dates.
I spent fucking three hours in the pool hall on one of my dates. There's a lot to do here. speaking of the pool hall though playing pool keyboard and mouse is agony that is torturous
wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy but I did it and I slapped at it I was a monster at pool by the end of it also another thing that I just have to point out the attention to detail in GTA 4
I think is the best in the series there are so many small things that are constantly going on not only with like the obvious stuff like car damage and shit obviously like doing the swing set Gritch shows you a lot of the very cool effects when it comes to car damage, but like even just
little things sprinkled throughout the world, obviously getting drunk is another fun thing that has wacky mechanics to it, but I'm talking about even like the mission where you kidnap Gracie, and she starts yanking on the wheel, that is creative, that's fun, and there is something
similar to GTA 5, a moment like that happens, but GTA 4 also has another thing where eventually Nico gets tired of all the hoopla and, you know, her, like, trying to crash the car to escape,
so he knocks her out. And when you're driving with her unconscious in the passenger seat, you can actually see her body react to all of your turns. If you brake, you see her slowly lean forward.
Or if you brake really hard, you see her jolt forward. If you turn, you see her body go from side to side. It's this attention to detail that really has GTA 4 ooze so much, like, passion and just so much style.
I really, really love GTA 4. It is still my favorite GTA, but yeah, it was very close between San Andreas and 4. Now, getting into the DLCs, Lost in the Damned, I think it was a good DLC.
I enjoyed it. There was a lot to like about it. I don't think there's anything like super special, but it's more GTA 4, so I'm just going to lump all of these together. As far as DLC goes, it was good, but nowhere near as good as Ballad of Gay Tony.
This was remarkable. Like, this was up there with some of the best moments in the main game. So you play as Luis here in the Ballad of Gay Tony, and Luis, some people argue, is like a good guy with a good heart.
I can kind of see that sometimes because he does genuinely care about Tone, but he's also fucking terrorist. There's a mission where you just blow up a crane in the middle of the city, like you just blow shit up, like you definitely kill tons and tons
and tons of innocent people to further your own goals, and he mentions numerous times how he is a psychopath murderer. And it also introduces another side character who was my second favorite side character in the franchise,
Yusuf. Yusuf, man. I wish he was there in the main game, I wish we had more Yusuf. He was so fucking entertaining. And his missions were really
really fun. So, Ballad of Gay Tony had a lot more content than Lost in the Damned, and it had a lot more to do, and I do think the characters were a lot stronger, so Ballad of Gay Tony was definitely the better of the
two DLCs here, and again, it's more GTA 4, so you know that shit is already good. So yeah, that's my ranking of all the GTA games. I see on this tier list here there's GTA Online. I'm going to
just put this in here with GTA 5 for obvious reasons. I like the online. I spent the bulk of my time in the online in recent memory just RPing, and I like RPing. It's been a lot of fun, or it was a lot of fun doing that. I don't think I'm going to go back to RPing until GTA 6 rolls around
and whatever online releases there, but yeah, GTA Online was always fun, and maybe my friends and I will go through and do all the heists. We'll see. But yeah, I really fucking enjoyed this marathon. It is incredible
how strong this franchise is. There's only one game in their entire GTA catalog that I would actually say is bad. And that's the first one. Which is, what, almost
30 years old now? I think that's about par for the course. Because I don't think GTA 2 is bad. It's got problems, but it's not bad. The only one that I would say is actually rough is the first one.
So what an incredible record they have with this franchise, man. Going through and replaying it, I was amazed at how well all of it still holds up. It was a joy from start to finish. So, yep, just wanted to give you my ranking after finishing all of the Grand Theft Auto games.
That's really about it. See ya.