The Game GTA Fans Are Playing Instead Of The Trilogy

"Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy" was released on everything from the Nintendo Switch to the PS5 on November 11. Die-hard "GTA" fans were excited to take a five-star police chase down memory lane, rekindling their love for the adrenaline-fueled PS2 and original Xbox titles in ultra HD resolution. "GTA 3," "Vice City," and "San Andreas" were all critical successes back in their day, but so far the critical reviews for the remastered trilogy have been more than a little disappointing. This is largely due to the game being exceptionally buggy, with glitches ranging from funny to downright creepy. In fact, "GTA: The Trilogy" is now the worst-ranked game of 2021 on several platforms. The PC version even had to be pulled shortly after hitting digital storefronts. Things actually got so bad that Rockstar had to come out and apologize for the awful state the game was released in, stating that they hope to fix many of the problems in the game in future updates, but still leaving many fans with a bad taste in their mouth.

After all that, it's no surprise that many are turning away from the trilogy toward other games, but what's really funny is that many fans have found solace in another old Rockstar title: "Grands Theft Auto 4."

At the time of writing, SteamCharts reported a 30.53% increase in "GTA 4" players on Steam over the last 30 days, making it the largest spike in players the game has seen this year. This is coming from a relatively small playerbase, with the average number of players being a scant 1,702 even after the bump in popularity, but it still seems to point toward a trend of players moving toward a different game to get their nostalgia fix. It is also possible however that some of the players who managed to muscle their way through the trilogy simply wanted to play the next game in the series.

"GTA 5" has dominated the public eye for the better part of a decade since its release all the way back in 2013, but "4" had its own time in the spotlight, winning Game of the Year at the Video Game Awards when it was released in 2008, (via Eurogamer,)  and still enjoying a 98 on Metacritic. As of right now, the game is mostly limited to PC. Console players will have to blow the dust off their old PS3 or Xbox 360 if they want to take a cruise around Liberty City since it was never ported to newer hardware, but given the state of the trilogy, that might be a good thing.