Ten Economies.
One Franchise.
From score-counter extraction to live sovereign monetary management — every major title mapped.
| Title | Economy Type | Circular Flow | Capital Market | Passive Income | Inflation | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA 1–2 1997–99 | Pure score counter | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | |
| GTA III 2001 | One-way extraction | ●○○○ | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | |
| Vice City 2002 | Extraction + first property loop | ●●○○ | ○○○○ | ●○○○ | ○○○○ | |
| San Andreas 2004 | Multi-stream mixed economy | ●●●○ | ●●○○ | ●●○○ | ○○○○ | |
| Deliberate regression | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | ○○○○ | | |
| GTA V SP 2013 | Mixed market + capital market | ●●○○ | ●●●○ | ●●○○ | ●○○○ | |
| GTA Online 2013–now | Full MMT sovereign economy | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●●●● | |
| Dual-territory currency union | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●●●● | |
The GTA IV regression zone on the complexity chart is intentional — Rockstar explicitly stripped six years of economic innovation for narrative realism. The shaded zone marks this as a design choice, not a data error. GTA IV is economically simpler than Vice City (2002) — a deliberate six-year step backward. However, TBOGT's nightclub mechanic planted the seed that would bloom into GTA Online's entire business empire. Without TBOGT there may have been no Acid Lab.
GTA IV Economy — Full Analysis →Score counter extraction (1–2) → one-way extraction (III) → first asset loop (VC) → multi-stream economy (SA) → deliberate regression (IV) → capital market recovery (V SP) → full MMT sovereign (Online) → dual-territory currency union (VI projected). The Cayo Perico nerf of 2021 is the single most economically significant event in franchise history.
GTA VI Economy — Full Projected Model →