Can you swim and dive underwater in GTA 6?
Rockstar’s own images show two scuba divers over a reef in the Leonida Keys, and IGN points out an oxygen meter on the HUD in a diving clip from An Extended Look. GamesRadar+ says you’ll be able to swim and scuba dive, but Rockstar hasn’t explained how either works.
Rockstar’s Leonida Keys imagery includes two scuba divers with a sea turtle and an eel. That’s shown, not described. Outlets add that Jason jumps off a pier in An Extended Look, and Video Games Chronicle lists scuba diving among the game’s activities.
How deep you can go and how breath works haven’t been announced.
At a glance
Checked 3 November 2026
- Scuba divers in Rockstar imagery
- Two divers over a reef with a sea turtle and an eel (Leonida Keys)
- Seen in footage
- Swimming and scuba diving
- GamesRadar+ says you will be able to do both
- Reported
- Diving HUD
- IGN notes an oxygen meter in An Extended Look
- Reported
- Diving off a pier
- Jason jumps off one in An Extended Look, per IGN and Kotaku
- Reported
- Jet skis and kayak
- Pictured by Rockstar in official images
- Seen in footage
- Gear, depth and underwater rewards
- Rockstar hasn’t said
- Not confirmed
- Swimming in earlier games
- Not in Vice City (2002); San Andreas (2004) let CJ swim
- Series history
What has Rockstar actually shown underwater?
Rockstar’s own material shows divers, but explains nothing about how diving works. The Leonida Keys images on Only in Leonida include two scuba divers over a coral reef, with a sea turtle and an eel nearby. That is the strongest evidence, because it comes from Rockstar itself.
Rockstar hasn’t described the controls, how you get the gear, how deep you can go, or whether there’s anything on the seabed to find.
What do previews and trailer breakdowns add?
Outlets go further, and we mark all of it as reported. GamesRadar+ says in its side activities guide that you will be able to swim and scuba dive, pointing to a swimmer in a wetsuit among manta rays in An Extended Look. IGN’s Extended Look breakdown says scuba diving returns and points out an oxygen meter on the HUD, which is one outlet describing one clip.
Video Games Chronicle’s September report on the map lists scuba diving, jet skiing, kayaking and air boating among the game’s activities. IGN and Kotaku both describe Jason jumping off a pier into the water in An Extended Look; Kotaku saw a backflip on the way down and thought it looked like gameplay rather than a cutscene. None of that tells us whether you can swim freely, or how long you can stay under.
Which other water activities has Rockstar shown?
Plenty, in images rather than explanations. Rockstar’s pictures show jet skis behind a boat party in the Keys, airboats among alligators in the Grassrivers, a police boat, and a kayak outside Jason’s safehouse. The Ultimate Edition adds a Shitzu Squalo boat and the Crest Kayak.
We cover these separately: boats, jet skiing, kayaking, airboating and scuba diving. Swimming off a pier has its own page at swimming and diving off piers.
Could you swim in earlier GTA games?
Not in Vice City. In the 2002 game Tommy Vercetti drowns in deep water, and Push Square noted in 2021 that the remaster kept it that way. San Andreas changed things in 2004: IGN’s review at the time listed holding your breath underwater among the skills CJ gets better at with practice.
GTA V in 2013 added scuba gear, and Game Informer’s preview that year described Trevor taking it from a boat and heading down to the seabed. All of that is history, not a promise about GTA 6. See GTA San Andreas and GTA V.
What we don’t know yet
Rockstar hasn’t said how deep you can dive or how breath works, and the oxygen meter is one outlet’s observation. Video Games Chronicle, relaying Game Informer’s preview, says Rockstar counts sharks among the game’s sea creatures, but nobody has said whether they are a danger to swimmers, whether you can fight underwater, or whether the seabed hides loot or missions.
Our reading of the footage is that swimming and diving are in the game. Until Rockstar explains them, the details stay open.
Related questions
Can you swim in GTA 6?
GamesRadar+ says yes, based on An Extended Look, and Rockstar’s own images show scuba divers. Rockstar hasn’t described how swimming works.
Can you drown in GTA 6?
Rockstar hasn’t said. IGN spotted an oxygen meter in a diving clip, but that doesn’t settle what happens when you swim without gear.
Are there sharks in GTA 6?
Video Games Chronicle, relaying Game Informer’s preview, says sharks are among the game’s sea creatures, so that is reported. Rockstar’s own underwater image shows a sea turtle and an eel, and nobody has said whether sharks attack swimmers.
Can you dive off a pier or boat in GTA 6?
IGN and Kotaku both describe Jason jumping off a pier in An Extended Look. Rockstar hasn’t said how it works.
Sources and verification
- Only in Leonida, Rockstar Games
- All of the GTA 6 side activities confirmed so far, GamesRadar+ (30 September 2026)
- 99 Details From the GTA 6 Extended Look, IGN (28 August 2026)
- GTA 6 map is officially twice as large as GTA 5, features hurricanes and tropical storms, Video Games Chronicle (29 September 2026)
- 15 cool details we spotted in GTA 6’s big Netflix gameplay reveal, Kotaku (27 August 2026)
- Grand Theft Auto VI editions, Rockstar Games (3 November 2026)
- No, Tommy Vercetti Still Can’t Swim in GTA Vice City on PS5, PS4, Push Square (10 November 2021)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas review, IGN (25 October 2004)
- Touring the open world of Grand Theft Auto V, Game Informer (2 May 2013)