Australia classified GTA 6 MA 15+, sight unseen
Grand Theft Auto VI was classified MA 15+ in Australia on 3 September 2026. The record sits on the National Classification Database as CLAS-1515774, production company Rockstar Games. It is the earliest official rating we have found for this game, and it was produced by a questionnaire rather than by anyone watching it.
The consumer advice attached to it is the fullest official description of GTA 6’s content published by any classification body so far: “Strong Violence, Strong Sexual References, Sexualised Imagery, Strong Nudity, Strong Sex Scenes, Strong Coarse Language, Strong Crude Humour.” MA 15+ is a legally restricted category in Australia, not an advisory one.
Correction, 16 September 2026. This piece originally said Australia’s was the only rating the game had anywhere in the world. That was an overreach. We had checked four classification bodies and there are many more, so the absence we found could not support a claim about all of them. Brazil is the example that proves it: Microsoft’s Brazilian storefront lists a DJCTQ 18 rating for every GTA 6 edition, with the descriptors Violência Extrema, Conteúdo Sexual and Drogas Lícitas. We have not been able to confirm that against ClassInd’s own database, so we do not yet know whether it came through IARC as Australia’s did or from a Board decision. The claim below is now limited to what we actually checked.
Correction, 26 September 2026. This piece also said the window to ask the Board to revoke the rating closes before the game ships. It does not. Section 22CH runs the three-month clock from the day the decision takes effect, and section 22CF puts that on the day the decision is entered on the National Classification Database, so on the 3 September record the window closes on 3 December, a fortnight after launch. The section below is corrected.
How the rating was produced matters
The record lists the applicant as IARC and the category detail as “Computer Game - IARC Global Rating Tool”. Under the IARC process, a developer completes a questionnaire when setting up a game on a participating storefront and the tool generates the rating and the consumer advice from the answers. Section 22CF of Australia’s Classification Act then treats that output as a decision of the Classification Board. Nobody at the Board watched the game to reach it.
That is why this should not be read as Australia rating GTA 6 two steps below GTA 5. The Board classified Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced R 18+ in February 2025, applicant Take 2 Interactive Software Pty Ltd, file number T13/2376. The two decisions came through different routes and are not a like-for-like comparison.
The rating is also not necessarily final. Section 22CH lets the Board revoke a tool classification if it considers the rating wrong or the consumer advice misleading. It can do that on its own initiative, and an application asking it to must normally be made within three months of the day the decision takes effect, which the Act defines as the day it is entered on the National Classification Database. On the 3 September record that window closes on 3 December, two weeks after the game ships on 19 November.
What the boards we checked are saying
The ESRB has no entry for Grand Theft Auto VI, and neither do PEGI or USK. PlayStation’s own page shows “Rating Pending Mature 17+”, and the Xbox store listing shows “RATING PENDING LIKELY MATURE 17+”. The ESRB runs two processes: physical games are reviewed before release by at least three trained raters watching a gameplay video, while digital-only games go through IARC. It has published nothing about which one applies here or when its rating will issue.
Those are four boards out of many, and Brazil is the reminder that a rating can exist without appearing on any of them. We are checking further and will say what we find.
We will post the ESRB descriptors the day they appear, we will confirm Brazil’s rating against ClassInd directly, and we will say if Australia’s rating changes. Until then, Australia’s consumer advice is the fullest official account of what is in this game that we have been able to verify, and how we cover GTA 6 is why we are not filling the rest of the gap with guesses.
Sources. Grand Theft Auto VI on the National Classification Database · Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced on the NCD · Australian Classification: what are the ratings? · Australian Classification: use the IARC Global Rating Tool · Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 · How IARC works · ESRB ratings process · ESRB ratings search · Grand Theft Auto VI on playstation.com · Grand Theft Auto VI on the Xbox Store · Grand Theft Auto VI on the Brazilian Xbox Store