Huge hint GTA 6 officially lives in the Red Dead Redemption 2 universe

It's official. Grand Theft Auto VI and Red Dead Redemption 2 live and breathe the same fictional American air.

That's an artist way of saying they live in the same universe. Well, according to Rockstar and images it has released of GTA 6 ahead of its 19 November 2026 release.

Expected to be the biggest video game launch of all time, and the highest grossing by the time things come to pass, Rockstar's new project is already showing obvious links to what many consider the current best game of all time, 2018's RDR2.

With Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look premiering on Netflix before a wider internet release, we've been given a chunky playthrough of what we can expect from car chases to pretending to be John Cena in backyard wrestling.

But this tease isn't from the footage. No, it's from the official artwork pushed by Rockstar.

The GTA 6 community stumbled upon this way back in May 2025 but it has recently reared its head due to popular gaming X account, Synth Potato.

"In GTA 6, the faces that are visible on cash notes are all actually presidents from Red Dead Redemption 2's lore, the art is taken straight from the cigarette cards collectibles," our potato friend writes on the platform previously known as Twitter.

"So Red Dead and GTA are slightly connected lore wise!"

In case you're not up to speed on the lore here, RDR2's cigarette cards include the names and faces of former fictional US presidents from the world in which Red Dead inhabits.

In a promo image of GTA 6 protagonists Lucia and Jason, money floating through the air seemingly shows fictional POTUS duo Thaddeus Waxman and Franklin Hardin on bank notes as they fall to the floor.

The actual discovery goes back to Reddit user cph2001 confirming, the crossover with Red Dead Redemption 2.

“Just noticed that the presidents on the cash in the club screenshot seem to depict the same presidents from RDR2’s cigarette cards,” cph2001 wrote.

“Thaddeus Waxman and Franklin Hardin. Cool little detail,” they continued.

“GREAT catch,” replied noturaverageangelino. “Wow. That's an AMAZING detail,” added Sea_Philosopher1080.

It's a very cool detail and we're eager to know more here to firmly confirm that GTA and Red Dead are a part of the same timeline. Standard US place names are used in the latter, but you never know, a bit of retcon never hurt any major franchise, right? Right?

Yes, Red Dead’s characters refer to places like California but perhaps there’s lore that explains why it was changed to San Andreas?

I could be clutching at straws but the bottom line is that GTA 6 already features a very cool Red Dead Redemption 2 Easter egg, and I’m almost certain it’s not the only one.