Airboating

What Rockstar has shown

Airboats are one of the first things GTA 6 ever showed. About 20 seconds into Trailer 1, an airboat skims across open wetland, and Rockstar later named "air boating" in its list of side activities in Game Informer's September 2026 cover story (IGN, VICE). In An Extended Look, IGN spotted airboats moving through shallow swamp about two-thirds of the way through, and called them "the perfect way to move through the shallow swamps". Rockstar's Grassrivers screenshots show an airboat too (IGN).

Where you'll use one

Airboats belong to Grassrivers, Leonida's version of the Everglades. Polygon calls it "the Everglades-like Grassrivers region", and Dexerto's real-life map guide warns you'll need a boat to get around it quickly, "just watch out for alligators". Rockstar's own site promises "deadlier predators and weirder discoveries" there than the gators.

Question	What we know
Can you drive an airboat?	Very likely: Rockstar lists airboating as an activity
Is it a race, a tour or free roam?	Not stated
Where	Grassrivers' shallow wetlands, going by the footage
What lives there	Alligators, flamingos and other wetland wildlife (Rockstar via Game Informer)

Compared with other boats

Airboating is one of four water activities Rockstar named, with kayaking, jet skiing and scuba diving. The three boat activities each fit a different kind of water: the kayak for canals and quiet creeks, the jet ski for open sea off Vice City, and the airboat for the swamp, where shallow, weedy water would stop most boats.

Our take: the airboat is Grassrivers' signature vehicle, and we expect it to be how most players first explore the swamp. Rockstar showed it in the very first trailer, a decision you make about things you want people to remember. For a first trip, take one out by day and stay in open water until you have seen how alligators behave around boats. Whether "airboating" means timed races, swamp tours or simply driving one is the main unknown; our guess is a mix of free driving and at least one airboat race, since Rockstar's activity list puts it beside jet skiing and racing, but that is a guess.

What to watch for at launch

• Whether airboating is a race, a tour, or free roam only.
• Where airboats can be rented, stolen or borrowed.
• Whether alligators react to airboats passing close.