GTA V is objectively one of the most successful games of all time. A few months ago, it was announced that overall sales had surpassed 80 million, with a more recent announcement stating that GTA V had its most successful 3 month period to date.

It’s still one of the most played online games at the moment, averaging around 45-60k online players every day on Steam alone, which is amazing considering that is only one of the many platforms the game is available on.

Online player bases for games tend to fritter away after a few years, with sequels being made to refresh everything and get people interested again. What makes GTA V so different, and why do we all return to it?

Content Updates

One of the ways GTA V manages to stay fresh is that every now and then, they’ll put out a completely free content update, adding a new element to online play.

As of now, the latest addition would be the Gunrunning update. With this, you’ll initially pick up a bunker which acts as the base of operations from where you’ll build an arms dealing empire. This is on top of previously released DLC, such as the Bikers, Cunning Stunts, and Import/Export updates. They all add something fresh to the game, bringing something new to the table and keeping people interested in the game as it enters ins fourth year.

On top of the new modes brought with each update, we also get new weapons and new cars, adding to the content available within the game.

You can enjoy the new updates right away, but to really make the most of these updates and the additions to the game, it’s best if you have fairly decent in-game bank account.

Rewards + Cash

Following on from the end of our last point, so much of the GTA Online experience revolves around improving your rank and making money. As Homer Simpson said back when the Simpsons was good: “money can be exchanged for goods and services”. In GTA V, these goods and services tend to be ATVs with turrets, or yachts with helicopter landing pads.

Check out our guide on how to make money in GTA V online for some more tips. That being said, if you really want to just splash the cash in GTA V online, you can check out our GTA cash and rank packages to give yourself immediate access to everything in the game.

Customisation + Mods

Another reason for GTA being so popular still is due to how customisable the game is through the use of mods. They allow you to make changes to the files of the game, altering the game itself in essentially any way you see fit.

In one of our previous articles, we had a look at a few of the best GTA V mods that were on the market.

You can keep things rather simple by doing something like improving the AI of the police, as well as changing the textures of the game to make it far more realistic (if your system can handle it). Another option would be to install mods such as Dragons V, where you play as a bloody massive dragon that shoots fireballs.

This level of customisation is hard to find in games, but it’s possible in GTA V. You can browse sites such as GTA-5 Mods in order to find precisely what you’re after, whether it’s a subtle aesthetic difference, or a complete game changer.

Online Community

A key part of precisely why GTA V is still so popular is the online community aspect of the game. The content updates, mods and ridiculousness of the game make it a prime target for Youtube videos and Twitch livestreams, ensuring that it’s always at the forefront of people’s minds.

For example, the game went through a big renaissance on Twitch due to the Role Playing servers that were popularised, being streamed for thousands of people, with so many more watching videos of the streams and sharing them through Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, etc. This really blew up overnight, bringing a lot more eyes onto the game, many of them returning after quite some time away from the game.

GTA is a content machine, meaning that people will always want to either play it, or watch other people play it, exhibiting its ridiculous gameplay.

It’s a perfect game to binge, whether that’s watching it or playing it.