America — 1899
Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar's frontier masterpiece, and the other half of the studio's soul · October 26, 2018
Red Dead Redemption 2 at a glance
The Van der Linde Gang
Twenty-three outlaws, one camp, and the slow end of the Wild West. RDR2 is a prequel to 2010's Red Dead Redemption — you already know how some of this ends, and it hurts anyway.
Arthur Morgan
Dutch's senior gun and the gang's conscience-in-progress. Arthur's journal, sketches and honor-driven story arc made him, for many players, the best character Rockstar has ever written.
Dutch van der Linde
A silver-tongued idealist with one more plan, always. Watching Dutch's philosophy curdle across six chapters is the spine of the whole story — and the setup for everything in the first game.
John Marston
The hero of Red Dead Redemption, here a young father still learning what family means. The epilogue quietly hands him the reins — and builds his ranch, beam by beam.
Everyone Else
Sadie Adler's revenge arc, Charles Smith's steady decency, Micah Bell's rat-faced scheming, Miss Grimshaw keeping the whole circus fed. Camp chores, campfire songs and gossip that reacts to your deeds.
Honor
Every kindness and cruelty moves a meter that changes shop prices, dialogue, random encounters — and which version of the story's most important moments you get to see.
A Living Simulation
Beards grow. Horses bond. Guns foul. Strangers remember. NPCs live full days whether you watch or not. It remains the high-water mark for open-world simulation, eight years on.
The Frontier
New Hanover
The Heartlands: cattle country, oil derricks and Valentine's mud-caked main street — home base for the game's early chapters and its best bar fight.
Ambarino
The frozen north where the story begins, one disastrous ferry job after Blackwater. Snowbound peaks, elk trails and the gang at its lowest.
Lemoyne
Deep-south swamp and faded plantation money. Saint Denis — the game's answer to New Orleans — is the densest city Rockstar had ever built at the time.
West Elizabeth
Big Valley's postcard wilderness and Blackwater's civilized streets, both returning from the first game a decade sharper.
New Austin
The original Red Dead Redemption's desert, rebuilt entirely and waiting in the southwest corner — Armadillo, Tumbleweed and all.
Guarma
The one nobody expects: a Caribbean island detour that exists for a single feverish chapter, then vanishes from the map like a bad dream.
Records & Legacy
$725 Million in Three Days
The biggest opening weekend in entertainment history at the time — second-biggest launch ever behind only GTA V's full first week. 23 million copies shipped in its first two months.
Third Best-Selling Game Ever
Over 85 million copies as of spring 2026, passing Wii Sports to sit behind only Minecraft and GTA V — meaning Rockstar now owns two of the top three of all time. It still sells ~3 million every quarter.
A Metacritic 97
Tied among the highest-rated games of its generation, with 175+ Game of the Year awards. The bar every open-world game since has been measured against.
Red Dead Online
The multiplayer frontier launched in late 2018 and grew roles — bounty hunter, trader, collector, moonshiner — before major updates wound down in the GTA 6 era. The community's mock "funeral" for it says everything about how much it was loved.
The Road That Leads Here
RDR2's tech, its mission design and its patience all feed directly into GTA 6. If you want to know what November 19 will feel like, this game is the closest thing to a preview that exists.
Why It's On a GTA Site
Same studio, same DNA, and for six years the newest Rockstar game in existence. Every GTA 6 expectation — the detail, the writing, the horses' … everything — was set right here.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Screenshots
Official shots first, then what the community is still making.
Official
From the Community
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Every piece links back to its creator. Browse more on DeviantArt ↗.
Red Dead Redemption 2 News
Legacy
The Best-Looking GTA of Its Day
Sunsets, neon reflections and a colour palette so specific that "Vice City" now describes an aesthetic, not just a place.
The Empire Blueprint
Property ownership and income streams ran through San Andreas, GTA V's businesses and GTA Online — all of it starts here.
The Definitive Edition
Part of the 2021 remastered trilogy, with some licensed tracks lost to expired rights — a running cost of building a game around real music.
Vice City Is Back
GTA 6 returns to Vice City for the first time in over twenty years, with Jason and Lucia and a whole state around it. See what's confirmed on our Leonida map breakdown.