What is Leonida based on?
Leonida is Florida with the names changed. This is the real geography underneath it — which cities, keys, wetlands and forests each region draws from, and where the resemblance stops.
Launches 19 November 2026
Rockstar has never said “Leonida is Florida” in those words. What it has done is name six regions whose geography, architecture and industries map onto specific parts of the state closely enough that the correspondence is not seriously in doubt.
The name itself is the giveaway: Leonida echoes Florida, and Leon County is real. Vice City has stood in for Miami since 1986.
Region by region
Six named regions, and the real Florida each one draws from.
| Region | In the game | Real-world basis |
|---|---|---|
| Vice City | The neon core of the state | Miami and Miami Beach |
| Leonida Keys | Island chain, shallow water, old smuggling routes | The Florida Keys |
| Grassrivers | Sawgrass, airboats and slow water | The Everglades |
| Port Gellhorn | A faded resort town past its season | Panhandle towns such as Panama City |
| Ambrosia | Farm country and small-town Leonida | Central Florida farm belt around Clewiston and Belle Glade |
| Mount Kalaga | Forested high ground in the north | North Florida state forests |
Miami and Miami BeachVice CityThe dense urban centre and the part of Leonida everyone pictures first: a beachfront strip of Art Deco hotels, a downtown of glass…
Name confirmed
The Florida KeysLeonida KeysA string of low islands trailing off the southern tip of the state, linked by long bridges over shallow flats. This is where Jason…
Name confirmed
The EvergladesGrassriversThe wetland belt inland from the coast — a flat expanse of sawgrass, channels and hammocks where the road network thins out and bo…
Name confirmed
Panhandle towns such as Panama CityPort GellhornA coastal town well outside the Vice City orbit, with the worn-out feel of somewhere that had its boom decades ago: motels, boardw…
Name confirmed
Central Florida farm belt around Clewiston and Belle GladeAmbrosiaInland agricultural country — fields, packing sheds and the small towns that serve them. The part of the state that has nothing to…
Name confirmed
North Florida state forestsMount KalagaThe state's national-park country: pine forest, elevation and hiking terrain, and the only part of Leonida that reads as wildernes…
Name confirmed