South Korea's Game Content Rating Board gave Grand Theft Auto VI an Adults Only rating on 16 October, but only after a first vote that split evenly between that rating and refusing the game outright, Inven Global reports. The article is dated 11 November and is based on meeting minutes and committee progress reports that Inven obtained.
How the votes went
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 10 Sep | First review. Three votes for Adults Only and three for refusal. The board postponed the decision and issued a recommendation for modification. |
| 2 Oct | Second review postponed to allow "sufficient gameplay examination". |
| 8 Oct | Meeting cancelled for lack of a quorum. |
| 16 Oct | Third review. Adults Only passed by 8 votes to 1, with all nine members present. |
Inven says the publisher's application was submitted on 1 September and that a playable build was not delivered until 28 September.
What the board cited
The final descriptors are Sensuality, Violence, Crime, Drugs and Language. Horror and Gambling were flagged in the preliminary report and left out of the final rating.
According to Inven, the main issue was Sensuality: frequent male nudity in the background with no sexual context or interaction. Members said it appeared clearly more often than in the domestic reference game the board compared it with. Violence, crime and drugs were judged comparable to GTA 5, which Inven notes was rated Adults Only in 2013, and the board noted it had no refusal criteria for crime or drugs.
Why refusal did not pass
Inven reports that members questioned whether they had clear legal grounds to refuse a game. It names provisions of the Game Industry Promotion Act, one of which was the subject of a 2024 constitutional complaint, and of the Information and Communications Network Act. A September 2025 revision softened the wording on suggestive exposure, and GTA VI was the first major AAA test of the new language. By 16 October, ten overseas rating bodies had already given adult ratings, so South Korea would have been the only country to refuse the game.
What is not known
- Inven could not confirm whether the publisher made the modifications recommended after the first review. It says scenes it had seen in earlier overseas footage were not found in the build the board reviewed, but it cannot tell whether they were removed.
- Inven says the publisher asked that the result stay non-public until the 19 November release, so earlier reports about the votes were not official.
- We have not found a statement from Rockstar or Take-Two on the Korean rating.
What it means for players
For players the rating is an adult rating, which matches the other regions: the store pages in our age rating guide show ESRB Mature 17+, PEGI 18 and Australia's R 18+. Inven's report does not say the game will be changed, delayed or withheld in South Korea. Content descriptors differ between boards, so a parent checking a local rating should use the board for their own country and the family settings on the console. The launch week page tracks what is announced next.