San Andreas Across Eras: The 2004 State vs GTA V

How San Andreas went from a 1997 city to a three-city state in 2004 and a one-city state in GTA V, with what was kept, what was cut and why it matters.

San Andreas is the only GTA place that has been a city, then a state, then a smaller state. In 1997 it was one of three top-down cities. In 2004 it became a whole state with three cities and the land between them. In 2013 Rockstar brought the name back but kept only one city, Los Santos, and gave the space to countryside instead. This page compares the two full-sized versions. Our view: GTA V did not shrink San Andreas so much as trade breadth for depth. One city plus wilderness replaced three cities plus roads.

At a glance

Item	Detail	Source
First use of the name	GTA (1997), a city based on San Francisco	Retro Gamer via GamesRadar+
As a state	GTA San Andreas (PS2, Oct 25 2004 in North America)	Take-Two
HD version	GTA V (Xbox 360 and PS3, Sep 17 2013)	Take-Two
Real-world basis	California, plus Nevada-like desert in 2004; "present-day Southern California" in 2013	GamesRadar+; Take-Two
Cities, 2004	Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas	GamesRadar+ (May 2004)
Cities, 2013	Los Santos only, plus Blaine County	Take-Two; Rockstar Steam copy
Still running	GTA Online, in the same state (update on Jul 14 2026)	GamesRadar+; Take-Two (Aug 2026)

What is counted, and how

Dates come from Take-Two's Business Wire releases. Real-world matches come from GamesRadar+, Retro Gamer and Edge, whose features GamesRadar+ republishes. Rockstar's own copy says "Southern California" for GTA V and nothing about real places for 2004, as far as we found.

Map sizes are the weak point, and we say so. Rockstar has not published an area for either map in any source we opened. Edge, writing in 2015, gave GTA V's map as 49 square miles. GamesRadar+ in 2023 gave 29.28 square miles (75.84 km2; 29.28 x 2.59 = 75.8, so the two units agree). Those two outlet figures differ by about 20 square miles, so we print neither as fact. For 2004 we have only pre-release and reviewer comparisons with Vice City.

Gaps:

Announcement to release, 2004: Mar 1 2004 to Oct 25 2004 is 238 days.
Announcement to release, 2013: Nov 3 2011 to Sep 17 2013 is 684 days.
San Andreas (Oct 25 2004) to GTA V (Sep 17 2013) is 3,249 days, or 8 years, 10 months and 23 days.

The 1997 name: a San Francisco stand-in

In the first GTA, San Andreas was a city. Retro Gamer says its map was based on San Francisco, alongside Liberty City (New York) and Vice City (Miami). So the name's first real-world model was the city that the 2004 game would rename San Fierro, not Los Angeles.

The 2004 state: three cities and the land between

Rockstar announced GTA San Andreas on Mar 1 2004 as a PS2 exclusive. It shipped in North America on Oct 25 2004 and Europe on Oct 29. Xbox and PC versions were scheduled for June 7, 2005 in North America (Take-Two, Dec 2004). Rockstar's copy sets it in the early 90s and sends CJ "across the entire state". See GTA San Andreas and Carl Johnson.

GamesRadar+ put it plainly in May 2004: "San Andreas is NOT Los Angeles, it's a whole state." The three cities:

Los Santos, "to all intents and purposes, LA". CJ's home. See Los Santos.
San Fierro, based on San Francisco, with hilly streets, a bay, many bridges and fog (GamesRadar+, Oct 2004).
Las Venturas, based on Las Vegas, "neon lit" with "garish super casinos" (GamesRadar+, 2012).

The countryside is what made it a state. GamesRadar+ described cliff-strewn valleys west of Los Santos and Nevada-like desert to the north-east, with ghost towns, truck stops and aircraft graveyards. It judged the badlands and desert "as big as the three cities together". Retro Gamer noted there were no loading times between the cities.

How big was it? Before release GamesRadar+ said each of the three areas was roughly the size of all of Vice City, and the whole game four to six times its predecessor. Those were preview claims. In 2007 a GamesRadar+ writer said Los Santos alone was "probably the size of Vice City". Neither is a measurement.

The 2013 state: one city and Blaine County

Rockstar announced GTA V on Nov 3 2011. Its release said the game "heads to the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches" in "a re-imagined, present-day Southern California". It did not mention San Fierro or Las Venturas. GamesRadar+ read that the same day as "no San Fierro or Las Venturas", and the shipped game bore that out. Rockstar's later store copy describes the world as "Los Santos and Blaine County".

Edge traced the map from Los Santos International Airport in the south, through the city, up through the Tongva Valley, over the San Chianski Mountains and down to Blaine County. GTA V launched Sep 17 2013 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and on PC on Apr 14 2015 (Take-Two 10-K, 2016). GamesRadar+ notes it has spanned three console generations. See GTA V and Michael, Franklin and Trevor.

GTA Online runs in the same state (GamesRadar+ timeline). Take-Two's August 2026 earnings release lists a GTA Online update, the Kortz Center Heist Summer Update, released Jul 14 2026. See GTA Online.

2004 vs 2013: the comparison

This table is ours, built from the sources above. Where a cell says "not sourced", we did not find a primary or major-outlet statement.

Feature	San Andreas (2004)	GTA V (2013)
Cities	Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas	Los Santos
Real-city bases	Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas	Los Angeles ("present-day Southern California")
Non-city land	Valleys, hills and Nevada-like desert between cities	Hills, countryside, beaches, mountains; Blaine County
Era	Early 1990s	Present day (2013)
Rockstar's wording	CJ's journey "across the entire state"	"Los Santos and Blaine County"
Map area	Not sourced; previews compared it with Vice City	Not published by Rockstar; outlets give 49 or 29.28 sq mi
First platforms	PS2 (Oct 2004), then Xbox and PC (scheduled Jun 2005)	Xbox 360 and PS3 (Sep 2013), PC (Apr 2015)
Announcement to release	238 days	684 days
Protagonists	Carl Johnson	Michael, Franklin, Trevor
Multiplayer	No online mode; a few co-op missions (Retro Gamer)	GTA Online, still updated in 2026

What the table shows: the 2013 version kept the state's name and its Los Angeles core, and replaced two cities with countryside. GTA V's single city is the main stage, and Blaine County gives it a rural opposite. San Andreas in 2004 got its variety from three different cities. GTA V gets it from city against country.

Why the HD version cut two cities

Rockstar has not explained the cut in any source we found, so this is our reading, not a reported fact. The 2011 announcement leads with Los Santos and "the pursuit of the almighty dollar", and the 2013 copy describes a city of "self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities". GTA V's theme is one city's money culture. A second and third city would have split that focus.

Trivia

GTA V's announcement said more than 114 million GTA games had been "sold-in" (shipped to retail) worldwide by November 2011 (Take-Two).
PSM2's review in GamesRadar+ logged 109 in-game days and 50 hours to finish the story. Retro Gamer later put the main story at "the best part of 70 hours". The two outlets give different figures, so we print both.
In the 2004 game, each city has its own fighting style to learn at a gym (GamesRadar+, Oct 2004).