San Andreas

Updated 28 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

San Andreas is a fictional place in the Grand Theft Auto series based on California. In the 1997 game it was a city modelled on San Francisco. GTA: San Andreas (2004) turned it into a state with three cities, and GTA V (2013) shows only its southern part: Los Santos and Blaine County.

Is San Andreas a city or a state?

Both, depending on the game. In 1997 San Andreas was a city. From 2004 onward it is a state, and the city that used to carry the name became San Fierro. GTA Wiki points out that the name comes from the San Andreas Fault, which runs through California.

San Andreas in the 2D era (1997)

In the top-down Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas is the second of three cities and is based on San Francisco. It opens after the Liberty City chapters. The map has a large northern landmass of fifteen districts and a small southeastern island used as the docks. A valley cuts across the main landmass from east to west. Story jobs come from a Chinese gang led by Uncle Fu and from El Burro's Latino gang.

San Andreas in the 3D era (2004)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas launched on 26 October 2004 in North America and is set in 1992. San Andreas is now a whole state, loosely based on California and Nevada. It holds three cities: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Forests, farmland and desert fill the space between them.

GTA Wiki lists five counties outside the cities: Red County, Flint County, Whetstone, Tierra Robada and Bone County. Small towns such as Angel Pine, Palomino Creek and Fort Carson sit in these rural areas. A train line links the cities, and each city has an airport.

The world covers about 36 square kilometres, according to Wikipedia, which makes it roughly four to six times the size of GTA III or Vice City. Only Los Santos is open at first. Carl Johnson unlocks the rest as the story goes on. The team first planned three separate maps joined by public transport, then merged them into one map. Each city got its own sky colour and climate.

San Andreas in the HD era (2013)

Grand Theft Auto V (17 September 2013) returns to San Andreas, now based on Southern California. Only the southern part of the state is playable, shown as one large island. Los Santos fills the south and the rural Blaine County covers the north. Unlike most earlier settings, the whole map is open from the start.

Rockstar North had more than 1,000 people on the project and treated the open world as its hardest technical job. Staff took research trips across the region, used Google Maps projections of Los Angeles to plan roads, and studied census data. GTA Online, launched on 1 October 2013, uses the same map. Its 2020 Cayo Perico update added a separate Caribbean island rather than more of the state.

Are San Fierro and Las Venturas in GTA V?

No. Both cities are only mentioned in the HD games. GTA Wiki notes that HD-era references even place Las Venturas in a separate, unnamed state that resembles Nevada.