The original Grand Theft Auto has three main cities: Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City.
Released in 1997, the first Grand Theft Auto is divided into six levels spread across those three city areas. Each location is a fictionalized version of a real American city: Liberty City evokes New York City, San Andreas evokes San Francisco, and Vice City evokes Miami.
These cities are not presented as one continuous open world in the modern Grand Theft Auto sense. Progression is structured through separate levels, with each city appearing as part of the game’s sequence of increasingly difficult criminal challenges. Players earn points through activities such as stealing cars, completing missions, and causing destruction.
Later games changed how these names were used. San Andreas became a large fictional state containing Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas, while Vice City and Liberty City became more detailed 3D settings in later entries. Those later subdivisions should not be counted as extra cities in the original game.