A modder has pulled off the impossible by compressing the massive PC version of ‘Grand Theft Auto 5‘ down to 2.5 GB. The game usually takes around 120 GB of space, but creators slashed nearly everything that makes Los Santos recognizable
There’s no denying that GTA 5, which was released more than a decade ago, is still among the best open-world games of all time. Given the high detailing and content, the game has increased over the years, and so have the specs needed to run it on the system.
Viral Mod Strips ‘GTA 5’ To Its Core
The modder, OptiJogos, shared a clip on X, showing a version of ‘GTA 5‘ that has been stripped of 98% of its content. To reduce the size of the game to this low, they deleted mission data, audio files, and massive chunks of the map. What was left is a skeleton of the original map where character models are reduced to faceless blobs and textures are essentially non-existent.
Surprisingly, the core sandbox mechanics are still functional. You can still steal cars and drive around, though you will be doing it over terrain that is constantly disappearing into the void. The frame rate is predictably choppy, but as a proof of concept, it proves that the actual engine of ‘GTA 5‘ is incredibly compact once you remove the gigabytes of high-res art and sound files that Rockstar is known for.
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The most impressive part of this was that OptiJogos ran this version on a 2015 netbook at 20 FPS. For fans who don’t know, this system normally can’t even run the Rockstar Launcher smoothly. Yet, he ran the stripped-down version of the most complex open-world game ever made. The creator has even included a download link for those brave enough to try navigating a low-poly Los Santos themselves.
Fans Are Eagerly Waiting For ‘GTA 6’
This mod comes at a time when the community is desperate for any kind of new GTA content. With ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ now officially locked in for a November 19, 2026 release date, fans are looking for ways to kill time. The several delays for the sequel have been a gut punch, but the modding community is clearly doing the heavy lifting to keep the franchise in the headlines.
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Rockstar is expected to ramp up the marketing for GTA 6 this summer, which should finally give fans a look at how the next generation ‘Grand Theft Auto.’ Until then, watching a blob-like Michael De Santa struggle to drive through a pixelated city is the kind of chaos that keeps the ‘GTA ‘community alive.
