"At the end of the day you can't cheat with lines of code." That's Texas content creator Alli Franco, quoted by VGTimes, and it sums up the loudest side of an argument GTA 6 has reignited before it's even out: if you build up the romance between Jason and Lucia, does that count as cheating?
Now there's data. In September 2026, YouGov asked more than 4,000 British adults whether you can cheat on someone with a video game character. The BBC reported the result under a headline framed as a question, and the poll was picked up this week by VGTimes, iXBT.games and eGamers.
What the poll found
Short version: almost nobody sees it as cheating, but plenty of people wouldn't like it. The figures, per iXBT.games and eGamers:
| Answer | Men | Women | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| It's cheating | 4% | 7% | ~6% |
| Not cheating, but not okay | 13% | 24% | ~19% |
| Not cheating, and fine with it | 62% | 46% | — |
Add the first two rows and roughly one in four Britons would have some problem with a partner dating inside a game — that's where eGamers' headline comes from. The gender gap sits almost entirely in the middle row: nearly one in four women say it isn't cheating but they wouldn't accept it, against just over one in eight men.
The three rows don't add up to 100% for either group. The remainder isn't broken down in the sources we read — most likely "don't know" answers, but the original YouGov chart isn't described in the articles we opened, so that's our assumption.
How it started
The row predates the poll. After An Extended Look aired on August 27, TikTok videos began framing the game's relationship system as a threat to real ones. "Don't let your boyfriend or fiancé or husband play GTA 6," creator Shelby Haas said in one of the most-shared clips, according to Gulf News. Her fiancé, Alex Eubank, chimed in: "Do I want to play GTA VI? Of course I want to, but if it bothers my woman, I won't be playing."
Dubai's Khaleej Times cites Kotaku in saying some of these clips passed five million views, but that most comments disagreed with them — which raised the suspicion that some of the content was made to provoke rather than out of genuine worry.
The paper also spoke to players in the UAE. Abdelhadi H., who plans to play, said: "If it is an AI-controlled character, I would not consider it cheating" — though a real person on the other end would change things. Amira Q., married to a gamer, objects on grounds of time rather than feelings: virtual romance "still takes part of their attention and consideration."
And the most common comeback online, noted by both eGamers and Gulf News: The Sims has let players marry, raise kids and build families for around 25 years, with no comparable panic.
Jason and Lucia aren't a typical RPG romance
This is the detail most of the debate skips. In RPGs with romance — Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate 3 — you play one character and woo another, controlled by the game. In GTA 6 you control both. Jason and Lucia are the protagonists, and you switch between them.
One of the people Khaleej Times interviewed, Mohamed AM., put it plainly: "You are not personally entering a relationship with either of them." As we see it, the closer comparison isn't flirting with a character; it's looking after a couple, a bit like running a soap opera.
That's close to how Rockstar describes it, too. Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, said that bringing the two together makes you feel like "a steward of their relationship," protective of them as a unit, according to eGamers. He said the team didn't know at the start that this would become a feature; they found it through trial and error.
How much the romance matters in the game
From what Rockstar has shown and the sources describe:
- It's optional. Jason and Lucia start out interested in each other, but the player decides whether to pursue it. If things stay platonic, they're still partners in crime.
- It's built from small things. Shopping, going to bars and restaurants, working out together, holding hands — even how quickly you reply to texts on the in-game phone, which Rockstar has confirmed affects whether the relationship thrives or fades.
- It has adult content. eGamers notes that the launch trailer includes three intimate shower scenes. In Brazil, the game is rated 18+.
We covered how the system works in more depth in our piece on Jason and Lucia's relationship.
Outside the UK
We didn't find a comparable survey from any other country in the sources we read. YouGov's numbers apply to Britain and can't simply be carried over elsewhere. What does travel is the same debate in short-video form, in every language.
Our take, since that's the question: a fictional couple that the player controls from both sides is closer to watching a soap than having an affair. But if your partner is among the 19% who wouldn't be okay with it, the problem probably isn't the game — and, as Alli Franco herself suggested, that's a conversation for the person on the sofa, not for Rockstar. GTA 6 launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.