Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the most successful video games of all time, and part of its success is due to the popular Grand Theft Auto Online multiplayer mode. GTA Online is included with GTA 5, encouraging players to remain invested in the world of Los Santos long after the campaign's end. For console players, though, staying invested means investing in online subscription services, like PlayStation's PS Plus.
Grand Theft Auto 5's campaign focuses on committing a series of heists and crimes in the fictional, Los Angeles-like city. The GTA 5 campaign features three protagonists the player controls throughout the course of a structured story in an open world. GTA Online, meanwhile, provides more freedom, letting players customize their own character and hang out or take on missions with up to 29 others per server.
Even though GTA Online is included in Grand Theft Auto 5, that doesn't mean it's easy to understand whether or not one can actually play the multiplayer mode. When GTA 5 launched in 2013, PlayStation 3's online play didn't require a subscription, but gaming is now in a somewhat confusing era of case-by-case PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live restrictions.
Does GTA Online Require A PS Plus Subscription?
In 2021, not all games require PlayStation Plus for online play - particularly free-to-play games, like Fortnite and Apex Legends. Unfortunately, GTA Online is not free to play, and players do still need a PS Plus subscription to dive in. A GTA Online standalone version is coming to PlayStation 5 in 2021 and will be free for the first three months, but even this will still require a PlayStation Plus membership.
Maybe this will change in the future, but as of right now, PlayStation 4 and PS5 users can't play GTA Online without paying for a PS Plus subscription fee. It's not clear if removing the fee would be up to Rockstar or Sony, but judging from the aforementioned free games, GTA Online likely wouldn't lose its PS Plus requirement without dropping its entry cost entirely. GTA Online does already include a number of microtransactions in the form of in-game currency-granting Shark Cash Cards, but Rockstar would probably implement some kind of season pass system before going fully free, akin to other free-to-play multiplayer games.
Of course, fans could pick up a copy of GTA 5 on PS3 to play Grand Theft Auto Online without subscribing to PlayStation Plus, but this would mean a substantial dip in quality and a lack of more recent content updates.