The Best GTA Villains of All Time, Ranked

Who is the best GTA villain? Ask a series veteran and one name comes up more than any other: Big Smoke, CJ’s childhood friend turned worst enemy in San Andreas. But the franchise is packed with memorable scumbags, from the corrupt cop played by Samuel L. Jackson to the ruthless billionaires of Los Santos. Here’s our ranking of the villains who left their mark on the series, and above all what makes them unforgettable.

Personal Betrayal or Abuse of Power: The Two Faces of Evil at Rockstar

Over twenty years, GTA’s villains almost all fall into two families. The first, and the cruelest, is personal betrayal: a loved one, a friend, a partner, a girlfriend, who stabs you in the back at the worst possible moment. Big Smoke, Dimitri Rascalov, Lance Vance and Catalina are its champions. The second is the abuse of power: the dirty cop, the mob boss, the billionaire who crushes the little guy simply because he can. Tenpenny, Sonny Forelli and Devin Weston rule that category.

This obsession with betrayal is no accident: it’s Rockstar’s true writing signature. The studio always prefers an enemy who was first an ally, because the fall hurts so much more. You’ll find that taste for drama in our retrospectives on GTA San Andreas and Vice City.

San Andreas: The Peak of the Rockstar Villain

If a single GTA deserved a trophy for the best villain cast, it would be San Andreas. The game brings together the two greatest antagonists in the series. On one side, Big Smoke, the pillar of the Grove Street Families who sells out his own for money and power before holing up in his Crack Palace. On the other, Frank Tenpenny, the dirty C.R.A.S.H. officer to whom Samuel L. Jackson gives an unforgettable voice and presence. Tenpenny frames CJ for a cop’s murder, then turns him into an errand boy under the threat of prison.

This duo perfectly captures the era: the one when Rockstar still hired Hollywood stars, like Ray Liotta for Tommy Vercetti in Vice City, before turning the page in favor of unknowns captured through full performance capture. We tell the story of that shift in our feature on the GTA V voice actors.

Liberty City and Vice City: The School of Betrayal

New setting, same pain. In Liberty City, Dimitri Rascalov raises treachery to an art form. A former prison mate of Mikhail Faustin, he manipulates Niko, uses him, then double-crosses him twice in a row. His shadow even decides the outcome of GTA IV: depending on your final choice, it’s Roman or Kate who pays with their life, but Niko always ends up killing him.

Off to Vice City, in 1986, for the most theatrical betrayal of them all. Sonny Forelli, a Liberty City mob boss voiced by Tom Sizemore, sends Tommy Vercetti down south, then spends the whole game demanding his money. Alongside him, Lance Vance, the partner who flips at the worst moment: in the finale, he sells out Tommy and reveals where the real loot is stashed. A delicious touch: Lance is played by Philip Michael Thomas, the Ricardo Tubbs of the cult series Miami Vice, the game’s openly admitted blueprint.

Can You Still Take On These Scumbags Today?

Good news: nearly this entire pantheon is still playable. GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas were re-released in The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition, with modernized controls, which puts Big Smoke, Tenpenny, Sonny, Catalina and Lance back within reach of your controller. GTA IV and its heartbreaking ending run again on recent platforms, as does GTA V, whose different endings and the fate reserved for Devin Weston we break down in detail.

One question remains: what memorable antagonists does Rockstar have in store for Grand Theft Auto VI? The Jason and Lucia duo will have to face their own traitors, and we’re already scanning the first clues in our breakdown of GTA 6’s secondary characters. To wrap up, here’s our full ranking of the best villains in the GTA series, from the unforgettable Big Smoke to the loathsome Devin Weston.