by theygames2025 is meant to be the year of GTA 6, but for PC players, it’s also the year of the GTA 5 Enhanced Edition. This long-overdue upgrade to the 11-year-old sandbox game, which has already been available for current-gen console players since 2022, has finally arrived, offering PC players an equivalent experience. However, despite the improvements and the fact that this is a completely free update, there’s still a surprisingly large amount of players sticking with the old Legacy Edition – on Steam, there are currently more people in the old version of Grand Theft Auto 5 than the Enhanced version.
While the GTA 6 release date should be the most exciting moment of the year for Grand Theft Auto fans, Rockstar’s reluctance to confirm whether it’ll hit PC on day one means that the new Enhanced Edition of GTA 5 might actually be the best you’ll get from Rockstar. Bringing ray tracing support, quicker load times, several new vehicles and car customization options from Hao’s Special Works, and access to Rockstar’s GTA+ membership, it’s a significant update, but not a fully transformational one.
Even though it’s a free upgrade for anyone that already owns GTA 5, there are currently more players in its Legacy Edition than the Enhanced Edition. While the combined player counts for both editions show an overall increase in people playing GTA 5 compared to recent weeks, the fact that there are still swathes of players in the old version might surprise you.
On launch day yesterday, March 4, over 180,000 players flocked to the Enhanced Edition of GTA 5, but its Steam user reviews took a bit of a hammering. While there were some valid complaints, it’s worth noting that a lot of its negative reviews stem from the ‘Where’s GTA 6?!’ crew… However, negative sentiments around the Enhanced Edition are likely not the main reason for the lack of adoption.
Alongside the fact that some people’s PC’s may not meet the new minimum specs needed to run the Enhanced Edition (check out our GTA 5 system requirements guide if you need more info on this) the main factor here is undoubtedly GTA RP. A large component of GTA 5’s longevity, popular roleplaying servers are currently not supported on the Enhanced Edition.
Cfx.re, the Rockstar-owned creators of the FiveM roleplaying mod, confirmed that it will be compatible with the new version of GTA 5 in the future, but not straight away. “FiveM servers will soon support this upgrade – until then, server owners should maintain servers on the existing versions of GTA 5. While we don’t have an exact release date to share today, we will keep you updated with more information here as development progresses.” Once that support starts to be made available, then we’ll likely see a much more widespread switch to the Enhanced Edition.
So, that’s what’s going down in the world of GTA 5 right now. But if you want a GTA 6 fix, head on over to our sister site GTA Db, which has compiled absolutely everything you need to know about the new sandbox game.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.