Which real-world city is Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V based on?

Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V is based on Los Angeles.

Los Santos is Rockstar Games’ fictionalised version of Los Angeles, while the wider state of San Andreas draws on Southern California. The game reproduces recognisable elements of the region, including sprawling freeways, beaches, hills, wealthy districts, industrial areas, and a Hollywood-inspired entertainment neighbourhood.

Rockstar’s developers conducted extensive field research in Southern California. They took photographs and video, studied maps and census data, and used Los Angeles road networks as references when designing the game’s city. The result is deliberately compressed: Los Santos is not a literal one-to-one map, but a playable recreation of the region’s geography and social contrasts.

Players sometimes confuse Los Santos with the locations from earlier GTA games. Vice City is based on Miami, while Liberty City is broadly based on New York City. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also included a version of Los Santos, but Grand Theft Auto V rebuilt the city at a much larger and more detailed scale.