GTA 6 secret found in Red Dead Redemption 2 after all these years

A newly discovered Easter egg in Red Dead Redemption 2 shows that Rockstar was teasing Grand Theft Auto 6 as far back as 2018.

GTA 6 is finally set to launch on November 19, 2026 after years of waiting and the internet couldn’t be more excited.

Despite VI only having two trailers and a handful of screenshots at the time of writing, it turns out that Rockstar was subtly hinting at the game’s location in their last big open-world release, RDR2.

As showcased by reliable GTA 6 leaker ‘GameRoll’, there is a file in Red Dead Redemption 2 that are directly tied to VI. The catch is that fans wouldn’t have had any idea that it was teasing at the time.

Red Dead Redemption 2 files hold big GTA 6 clue

Hidden in Red Dead Redemption 2, there are a batch of unused boat textures, including ‘The Emily Bell’ and ‘Moses T Prescott.’

One that is now especially relevant, however, is ‘The Leonida.’

GTA 6 is set to take place in the fictional state of Leonida, a stand-in for Florida, while Vice City is Rockstar’s version of Miami.

“It appears as if Rockstar might’ve initially intended to tease GTA 6 in RDR2? Either that, or this was where they got the inspiration for the name from. I think either scenario is just as likely,” GameRoll suggested, citing SonekaSpeedruns for the discovery.

Rockstar has indicated that Leonida itself will be massive and immersive, and it appears that the state’s name has been confirmed for quite some time, or at the very least, the boat’s name was repurposed.

This isn’t the only Red Dead discovery to make waves all these years later. The community has been hard at work trying to solve the new ‘Spider Dream Mystery’ – a secret quest that went unnoticed for 8 years, despite being connected to the mysterious glowing pentagram.

An ex-Rockstar dev even commented that they never expected the mystery to be found.

Given that RDR2 still has so many secrets players are stumbling upon all these years later, it’ll be wild to see how GTA 6 compares when it eventually releases later in 2026.