Just what is the population of GTA Online's Los Santos?

[Giantsgiants]

I was reading this article from 2013, where the author predicts that Los Santos will have a larger population than Los Angeles based on the number of copies sold. And I can't help but question the article.

 

First of all, how do you define a Los Santos resident?

For me, it's based on a person's primary property. If someone has tons of apartments in Los Santos, but always spawns in Paleto Bay, I don't count him; he would be a Paleto Bay resident.

 

Secondly, what do you think the population of Los Santos is?

Here is a list of real-life metropolitan areas by population. Los Angeles's population is 18.7 million. New York City's population is 23.7 million. Tokyo, the world's largest metropolitan area, has a population of 37.8 million. Do you think Los Santos surpasses any of these cities?

 

Discuss.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Giantsgiants

[PetrolCB]

Yes. Yes I do.

[crack1king]

No. Not everybody is on at once.

[FrugalDangerMan]

The GTA wiki estimates a population of 4,000,000. But I theorized a while back that the NPC population for the entire State of San Andreas about 10,000 tops.

 

Why?

 

One, there is nowhere near enough housing for 4 million people in the state let alone just Los Santos proper.

 

Two, have you ever noticed how you seem to see the same NPCS, cops, fire fighters, EMTs, etc over and over? That's because YOU DO. The NPCS heal and respawn just like the player characters.

 

No one ages or ever really "dies" in the game or if they do, the death rate is so low that the entire State can get away with only two or so grave yards and what, 300 Graves tops? And before you say "cremation" if that many people were being cremated, it would look like winter and smell like bacon all the time.

Edited February 10, 2017 by PNutterSammich

[elfoam]

28 people is all I see

[DarkSavageDeathlyCloud]

slightly off topic, but did anyone on the internet ever made a list of all NPC's in GTAO ?

[Sagrawa]

We've all been scammed into shared home-ownership. We all thought to be buying a nice apartment for ourselves, but in fact 10 million others bough the same place. Now every time we want to hang in Los Santos, they first need to get the other ones out by telling them there's an "unknown network error" and give us the idea that we can't land due to heavy fog by hovering us in the clouds.

[DangerZ0neX]

The canon states that 4 million people live in Los Santos, but due to gameplay limitations, it doesn't look like it.

 

You know those switch scenes you get with Michael and Franklin during heavy traffic in GTA V? That's how the traffic is supposed to function in canon, but because that would be a pain in the ass to deal with during gameplay, the traffic is light in comparison.

 

It's similar to how canonically the entire map of GTA V is actually connected to land. Paleto Bay's North water-front is actually a river, the East coast of the "island" is actually more mountainous lands that eventually leads to deserts and counties surrounding Las Venturas, and that the entire map is supposed to be larger in general. However, like it has been stated, it's an island for gameplay-limitation purposes.

Edited February 10, 2017 by DangerZ0neX

[Pedinhuh]

The canon states that 4 million people live in Los Santos, but due to gameplay limitations, it doesn't look like it.

 

You know those switch senses you get with Michael and Franklin during heavy traffic in GTA V? That's how the traffic is supposed to function in canon, but because that would be a pain in the ass to deal with during gameplay, the traffic is light in comparison.

 

It's similar to how canonically the entire map of GTA V is actually connected to land. Paleto Bay's North water-front is actually a river, the East coast of the "island" is actually more mountainous lands that eventually leads to deserts and counties surrounding Las Venturas, and that the entire map is supposed to be larger in general. However, like it has been stated, it's an island for gameplay-limitation purposes.

And apparently, the US-Mexico border is supposed to be nearby, going by what Trevor says

[Coleco]

Just remember to factor in all the people waiting in the clouds above the city too

[StormerBoy]

What about the children!? Won't somebody please think about the children!?

[JuniorChubb]

slightly off topic, but did anyone on the internet ever made a list of all NPC's in GTAO ?

 

I vaguely remember web link somewhere that let you follow the LS NPC's around Reality TV style. I am guessing it was just using a PC, setting the camera to cinematic on an NPC and streaming the results. These guys might love NPC's enough to have dived in and documented them all.

 

The trouble is though, iirc some NPC's are scripted and spawn and do the same thing day after day but I would guess some are randomly generated so you we may never know.

 

Anyway I Googled the NPC reality thing http://mashable.com/2017/01/20/gta-npc-crying/#OB05x5iifkqO

 

Edit: it seems to be down, so is the one that page links to

 

 

 

What about the children!? Won't somebody please think about the children!?

 

Some bloke turned up a few years ago to rid the city of rats, they didn't pay him after he completed his work...

 

You can guess what happened next.

Edited February 10, 2017 by JuniorChubb

[Gridl0k]

http://irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/estcit/estcit.htm

 

Go nuts.

 

Murder rate still behind Detroit tho.