By Put the two pictures next to each other and your eye starts jumping between them on its own. One is a real photo of downtown Miami at sunset. The other is the new GTA 6 screenshot of Vice City at dusk from Game Informer’s issue. The comparison has been going around since the magazine came out, and it shows how closely Rockstar has rebuilt the city’s skyline, its high-rises and the things along the water.
What lines up, object by object
Both shots look at the bay from almost the same angle: the arena close to the camera, the water and the marina on the left, the towers behind. Here’s what I can match on both frames:
| Real Miami | Vice City in the screenshot |
|---|---|
| Kaseya Center, the Miami Heat arena on Biscayne Bay | A round arena on the same spot by the water, signed “sahara arena” |
| The Skyviews observation wheel at Bayside | A ferris wheel on the water at the left edge of the frame |
| Bayside Marketplace and its marina | Low market buildings behind a marina packed with boats |
| A road bridge across the water in front of the arena | A road bridge in the foreground, its pylons lit pink |
| Downtown and Brickell towers, one still in cranes | A dense wall of high-rises, also with a tower in cranes |
My favourite match is a small one. Right next to the real arena there’s a flat roof punched with round holes, and the game has the same perforated roof in the same place. Nobody would notice it was missing. Rockstar put it in anyway.
Even the arena name works the Miami way. The real building has carried three sponsor names since it opened in 1999, and the game hangs a brand on its arena too. On the real roof right now there’s a Welcome to Vice City sign, so the two arenas are already greeting each other.
What Rockstar changed
It isn’t a copy. The real arena is smooth and white, while the game’s is dark with a lit zigzag pattern across the facade, and search lights shoot up from it like there’s a show on. The individual towers don’t match one by one either: the outline of the skyline and its rhythm are Miami, the buildings themselves are Rockstar’s. The one landmark from the real photo I can’t find in this frame is Freedom Tower. And the whole scene feels tighter, the way the entire map squeezes Florida to fit a game.
What sells the likeness for me isn’t the buildings, it’s the hour. Both frames sit in that short window where windows have started to glow but the sky is still brighter than the city. That’s the hardest light to get right: two light sources fighting, and the slightest mistake makes everything look flat. In the game version the sky goes pink and purple where Miami goes orange, and I think that’s on purpose. It’s the colour of the Vice City logo.
Fan frame-hunters have already matched more Miami buildings across the trailers; the list is on the Vice City districts page. This side-by-side is the first time we get the same view from the same height, and it holds up. Somewhere in that pink window light there’s a balcony I’d like to stand on in November.
FAQ
Is the Kaseya Center in GTA 6?
An arena stands on the same spot by the bay in Game Informer’s Vice City screenshot, with the sign “sahara arena” on it. It has the same round shape, but a different, darker facade.
Is there a ferris wheel in GTA 6’s Vice City?
Yes. The Game Informer screenshot shows a ferris wheel on the water next to a marina, where the Skyviews wheel stands at Bayside in real Miami.
Where is the Vice City screenshot in the comparison from?
It’s one of the twelve GTA 6 screenshots Game Informer published with its cover story on September 29, 2026.
How accurate is GTA 6’s Miami?
The layout around the bay matches closely: arena, wheel, marina, bridge and skyline sit where they do in the real city. Individual buildings are Rockstar’s own designs, and the city is compressed to fit the map.