Red Dead Online is dead. Or, is it?
I still remember the first time I rode out into the open plains of Red Dead Online. The sun setting behind the mountains, the rhythmic clop of my horse's hooves, a posse of friends at my side – it felt like Rockstar had done the impossible: created an online world that could actually rival GTA Online. A world not built on fast cars and casinos, but on simplicity and quiet moments.
For a while, it really worked. Bounty hunting, moonshining, treasure hunting – Red Dead Online had this rustic charm and immersive weight that GTA never quite matched. It felt like a real, more soulful alternative. But then… well, then it stopped growing.
The Forgotten Child Of Rockstar
While GTA Online kept getting update after update – new heists, flying cars, sprawling businesses, literal submarines – Red Dead Online started to feel like the forgotten child. But it wasn’t always obvious. For a while, Rockstar released new content for Red Dead: the Frontier Pursuits update, new roles, some holiday events. But at some point, the pace slowed. Then it stopped.
In 2022, Rockstar officially announced they were shifting resources away from Red Dead Online to focus on GTA 6. No new major updates, no roadmap. And with that, Red Dead Online quietly rode off into the sunset – or more accurately, was left out in the desert without a horse.
The reality is brutally straightforward: GTA Online prints money. Red Dead Online doesn’t. While GTA makes hundreds of millions every year from Shark Cards and player engagement, Red Dead’s economy just never reached that level of profitability. There’s only so much money to be made from selling horses, hats, and handcrafted trinkets. There’s no equivalent to owning a nightclub empire or launching a missile base in the Wild West – and Rockstar didn’t really try to create one.
At some point, they stopped seeing Red Dead Online as an investment worth maintaining. They cut their losses, and turned their full attention to GTA 6. It makes sense. It just also… sucks.
A World Full Of Potential
What really stings is that Red Dead Online had so much untapped potential. We dreamed of player homes – little cabins tucked into the trees or ranches to build up from scratch. We wanted new roles like horse taming or cattle trading. A business system to give the money some purpose. Anything that gave us something to work toward beyond collecting coins for another coat or fancy rifle.
Because yes, you can still grind. Still hunt and fish and chase down bounties alone or with friends. And that is fun. There’s a meditative, almost poetic beauty in just riding through the world, listening to the music. But at some point, you ask yourself: what am I doing it for? And that’s the heart of the problem. It’s a world that’s alive – but stalled.
And yet – and this matters – Red Dead Online still has a soul. There are still players out there, logging in, riding together, creating their own little moments. The community is smaller now, but maybe that makes it more meaningful. It’s the players who keep the world alive, even if Rockstar won’t.
We may never get the updates we hoped for. But the magic that Red Dead Online had – and still has, in its quiet way – hasn’t vanished. It’s just been left behind.