Mind-Blowing: Watch How Gamer Runs GTA San Andreas on a Smartwatch!

Highlights

A fan successfully got Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas running on a smartwatch, throwing shade at Meta's VR version of the game.

The fan probably installed the Android version of San Andreas on their smartwatch by side-loading it as APK files are technically compatible with the device. The game performed well on the smartwatch, but the limited screen size resulted in some UI elements being obscured.

A dedicated fan successfully ran Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on a smartwatch, ensuring stable and enjoyable gameplay. Afterwards, the fan took to social media to share this impressive accomplishment, also using it to subtly criticize Meta's VR version of San Andreas, which has been in development for several years.

On October 26, we will celebrate the 19th anniversary of the highly acclaimed release of San Andreas. Since its initial launch on the PS2, this third installment of the 3D Grand Theft Auto series has been ported to numerous platforms, including Android and iOS devices.

Artur Sychov recently took to Twitter to showcase yet another impressive feat - running Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on a smartwatch. He shared a brief clip of the game running on his Wear OS device. It is likely that Sychov achieved this by side-loading the Android version of San Andreas onto the smartwatch. As Wear OS is based on Android, it is technically compatible with APK files used for smartphone and tablet apps, although most apps are not optimized for tiny screens.

However, this experiment showed the limitations of running such a complex game on a smartwatch. The game was displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio, with the corners of the screen cut off due to the watch's round shape. Consequently, the smartwatch could not show most of the game's user interface elements. Despite this limitation, the smartwatch demonstrated impressive performance, with instantaneous loading times and smooth gameplay, as shown in the one-minute clip. Sychov used the 8Bitdo Zero 2, a small Bluetooth gamepad often recommended to budget-conscious owners of the Nintendo Switch, to play the game.

Sychov playfully presented this accomplishment as a glimmer of hope that fans will eventually witness San Andreas running on even more powerful hardware within the Meta Quest 3. His statement alluded to the fact that Meta has been diligently working on a VR adaptation of the game since 2021, but progress has been minimal. Just recently, the company confirmed that GTA: San Andreas VR is still far from finished.

Before Meta officially revealed the Quest version of the game, the modding community had previously made some efforts to incorporate VR features into the PC version of San Andreas. However, all those attempts were essentially abandoned.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is available on mobile devices, PC, PS2, P23, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.