What Is the History of FiveM? The Full Timeline From Its 2014 Birth to Joining Rockstar

FiveM is a MOD framework that extends Grand Theft Auto V (GTA5) into its own multiplayer environment. Today it is known as a central foundation of GTARP (roleplay) culture, but the road to this point was not a smooth one.

It began as a single individual's community project, faced bans and legal pressure from Rockstar/Take-Two, revived in an anonymous form, and ultimately came under Rockstar Games—a path that is unusual even in the history of game modding.

This article organizes the history of FiveM, from when it first appeared in 2014 up to the present in 2026, in timeline form. Along the way, regarding the dating errors that are repeatedly spread on overseas blogs and roundup articles, we will check the facts while distinguishing between official announcements, major media reporting, and community records.

[Image blocked: The journey of FiveM, which grew as a multiplayer MOD for GTA5]

Quick-Reference Timeline

[Image blocked: A timeline summarizing the major events of FiveM]

Prehistory: 2014 — The Start of CitizenMP / FiveReborn

The origins of FiveM go back to 2014, before GTA5 was released for PC. The starting point was when "NTAuthority," known as the lead developer, published a framework called CitizenMP. The PC version of GTA5 was released in April 2015, but even before that, volunteer modders had continued their trial and error against the console version, and the arrival of the PC version would open the door to full-fledged multiplayer experimentation.

GTA Online at the time was a closed environment fully controlled by Rockstar, with no room to run custom game modes, alter server behavior, or build the "persistent world" that roleplay culture would later demand. The first serious attempt to fill that void was FiveReborn, born from the CitizenMP lineage. It was a custom client that connected to community-hosted servers and let you play a modified GTA5; synchronization was unstable and tools were limited, but it had enough polish to prove the concept.

[Image blocked: FiveM, which began as a framework for playing GTA5 on independent servers]

2015 — Bans and Legal Pressure From Take-Two / Rockstar

As the project drew attention, parties who did not welcome it appeared: Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games, who hold the rights to GTA5. At the time, FiveM was trying to create a community-driven multiplayer environment in a form separate from GTA Online. The two companies are said to have viewed a non-monetized, community-driven multiplayer as a competitor to GTA Online.

According to overseas community records and reporting from the time, in the summer of 2015, Rockstar/Take-Two banned the accounts of FiveM's key figures. Lead developer NTAuthority, qaisjp who handled support, TheDeadlyDutchi, and others were said to be targeted, on the stated grounds that they were "promoting piracy."

Furthermore, in the same year, it is reported that a private investigator on Take-Two's side made contact with NTAuthority and handed over a cease-and-desist (C&D) letter demanding that distribution be stopped. In response, NTAuthority halted public distribution of the client itself. However, the project was not entirely abandoned; development of "CitizenFX," the open-source framework that forms the basis of FiveM, and the community's own efforts did not completely cease.

Incidentally, according to how overseas media such as PC Gamer looked back in later years, at this time Rockstar's side positioned FiveM as "an unauthorized alternative multiplayer service containing code that promotes piracy." Ironically, this assessment would later flip to the exact opposite with the acquisition.

2016 — Renaming to FiveM and the Anonymous Return

Even after the developer himself withdrew from the public stage, community members who wanted to keep FiveM alive remained. Revival projects such as FiveReborn and MultiFive sprang up, showing that people had not given up on this effort. According to overseas community records, pushed along by such moves, by the end of 2016 NTAuthority decided to return to the project.

The return was made anonymously (incognito), proceeding in the form of merging with FiveReborn, which was closest to the original. In this process the project was renamed "FiveM," and the CitizenFX Collective (CFX) was put in place as the development structure. Mechanisms to maintain anonymity were also introduced, aiming for a structure in which legal responsibility would not concentrate on any specific individual. The name FiveM and the Cfx.re structure that continues to this day had their framework shaped during this period.

[Image blocked: The logo of Cfx.re, the team that develops FiveM/RedM]

That said, it must be noted that this early history of 2015–2016 depends largely on testimony from the developer and community side, and records from the time, rather than on official primary sources.

The 2017 Modding Controversy (The OpenIV Incident) — Correctly Sorting Out Its Relationship With FiveM

Here we want to sort out a fact frequently conflated on overseas blogs and roundup articles. As GTA6 FEED confirmed by tracing the primary reporting, the description that "in 2017 Take-Two issued a C&D against FiveM" is highly likely to be a mix-up with the separate June 2017 OpenIV incident.

OpenIV is a tool with about ten years of history that supports single-player MODs for GTA5, GTA4, Max Payne 3, and more. According to overseas media reporting, on June 5, 2017, Take-Two sent a C&D against this OpenIV. The community fiercely pushed back against this, with review-bombing on Steam and a petition campaign exceeding 77,000 signatures. As a result, on June 23, Take-Two/Rockstar issued a statement saying that for MOD projects that are single-player, non-commercial, and respect third-party IP, they "generally will not take legal action." This was an important turning point that led to the modding-tolerant stance of later years.

What is important is that this 2017 matter targeted OpenIV, not FiveM. FiveM's specific legal pressure was in 2015 as described above; the two differ in both year and target. The design often cited as the basis for FiveM's survival—"it does not distribute copyright-protected game files, requires ownership of a legitimate copy of GTA5, and runs servers on players' own hardware"—is a fact, but this explains FiveM's standing legal position; it does not mean there was an independent lawsuit against FiveM in 2017. For that reason, timelines that put the acquisition year at 2022, or articles that treat the 2017 OpenIV incident as an action against FiveM, require caution when referenced.

2019 — The Appearance of RedM

FiveM's technical foundation was also applied to Rockstar titles other than GTA5. According to Cfx.re's official announcement, in October 2019, "RedM" was announced as a multiplayer MOD for Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2). Following the release of the PC version of RDR2 on November 5, 2019, it became available about a month later, that is, around the end of 2019.

RedM is built on the same Cfx.re framework as FiveM, and it enabled roleplay servers in a Western world. By holding two pillars in GTA5 and RDR2, Cfx.re became an entity that supports community multiplayer across Rockstar titles.

2021 — 250,000 Concurrent Players and the GTA RP Boom

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic around 2020, GTA5 roleplay (GTARP) gained explosive popularity, centered on Twitch. Triggered by the 3.0 update of the popular server NoPixel, major streamers such as xQc, Summit1G, and SodaPoppin entered RP one after another, and the exposure of the entire scene rose all at once.

According to overseas media reporting, in 2021, Cfx.re/FiveM announced that it had reached 250,000 concurrent players at weekend peaks. This was a figure exceeding the concurrent count of GTA5 (including GTA Online) on Steam during the same period, and the reversal phenomenon—where the MOD FiveM was more active than the base game's online mode—became a topic of conversation. The high narrative quality that GTARP generates supported its appeal as viewing content.

[Image blocked: GTARP (roleplay), where players act as police, civilians, gangs, and more, spread explosively on Twitch]

August 2023 — Coming Under Rockstar = De Facto Officialization

Then, on August 11, 2023, a historic turning point arrived. Rockstar Games announced the acquisition of the Cfx.re team behind FiveM and RedM. The acquisition amount is undisclosed.

[Image blocked: The Rockstar Newswire announcement reporting that "Cfx.re joins Rockstar Games" (August 11, 2023)]

According to overseas media and Crunchbase records, this acquisition was processed as "completed / made a subsidiary," and Rockstar stated on its official site that Cfx.re is the team behind FiveM and RedM and had officially become part of Rockstar Games. Alongside this, it was indicated that the company had expanded its MOD policy in the direction of officially permitting MODs created by the roleplay and creative community. It was a structure in which the side that had once banned FiveM's developers and applied legal pressure took that same project under its wing, and some reporting expressed it as "acquiring the modding team it had once banned itself."

To be precise with the wording here, what happened in August 2023 was strictly that the Cfx.re team became part of Rockstar Games—that is, came under Rockstar. With this, FiveM changed from a legal gray zone to a position with official backing, but as described later, FiveM being clearly positioned as the "sole authorized platform" is something that happens in 2026. Note that the acquiring entity is under the Rockstar Games name, and the acquisition year is August 2023. Descriptions saying "2022" or "under the Take-Two name" are erroneous.

The Evolution of Frameworks — From ESX to QBCore, and Then QBOX

The history of FiveM is also a history of the evolution of the "frameworks" that support server operation, not just the client itself. A framework is a foundation that bundles together the base functions of roleplay—jobs, economy, inventory, ID cards, and so on—and server creators build their own cities on top of it.

What spread widely in the early days was ESX. Afterward, QBCore, which has a more organized structure, rose to prominence, and its adoption progressed in new servers, including many Japanese-language servers. Furthermore, in recent years, QBOX has appeared, inheriting the QBCore lineage while improving maintainability, broadening the options. Which framework to adopt is divided according to a server's design philosophy and development structure, and they continue to develop while coexisting even now.

The Present (2026) — Other Platforms Shutting Down and Consolidation Onto FiveM

Since coming under Rockstar in 2023, FiveM's position has become even more solid. In January 2026, the Cfx Marketplace, an official storefront for FiveM/RedM, launched, institutionalizing the creator economy surrounding roleplay servers.

On the other hand, the multiplayer MOD platforms that had been competitors are disappearing one after another. According to overseas media reporting, alt:V began shutting down in February 2026, and RAGE:MP (RageMP) announced its end on May 25, 2026, with a full shutdown scheduled for August 31. In RageMP's statement, the fact that Rockstar/Take-Two positioned FiveM as the sole authorized platform for GTA5 multiplayer MODs under its Platform License Agreement (PLA) is cited as the direct reason for the shutdown. As a result, GTA5 multiplayer MODs are effectively consolidating onto FiveM. If 2023 was "coming under Rockstar," then 2026 can be organized as the year in which this becoming-the-authorized-platform clearly surfaced.

In terms of player numbers, the momentum has not waned either. Since early 2026, concurrent players for FiveM launched via Steam have also come to be tracked on SteamDB, and according to SteamDB, a record high of about 215,000 was recorded on April 12, 2026. While the figures vary depending on the measurement method, as of 2026 it routinely maintains over 100,000 concurrent players and remains at the core of GTA5 multiplayer culture. Note that FiveM is not sold separately on Steam, and a legitimate copy of GTA5 continues to be required to use it.

[Image blocked: FiveM also ranks high on SteamDB's "most played games" chart]

As a technical premise, as of June 2026, note that FiveM supports only the Legacy Edition of GTA5 and does not support the Enhanced edition.

Distinguishing Confirmed Information, Major Media Reporting, and Community Records

This article is organized based on Rockstar/Cfx.re official announcements, major media reporting from the time, and public records such as the Cfx.re forums. However, we note in advance that the early history of 2015–2016 also depends in part on testimony from the developer and community side.

On that basis, what can be treated as high-confidence confirmed information is the June 2017 OpenIV incident (unrelated to FiveM), the 2019 start of RedM, the 2021 reaching of 250,000 concurrent players, the August 11, 2023 acquisition of Cfx.re by Rockstar (amount undisclosed), and the 2026 launch of the Cfx Marketplace and the shutdowns of alt:V and RAGE:MP. These are backed by multiple independent sources. As for the 2015 bans and legal pressure, and the 2016 renaming to FiveM and anonymous return, while the facts themselves are widely reported, they depend in part on community records as noted above.

On the other hand, descriptions circulating in the wild such as the "2022 acquisition theory," "acquisition under the Take-Two name," and "FiveM received a C&D in 2017" are errors that contradict the confirmed information, and this article does not adopt them.

What belongs to the realm of speculation is the specific form of roleplay support in GTA6 (scheduled for release November 19, 2026, PS5 / Xbox Series X|S). Since the acquisition put Cfx.re under Rockstar, it is widely seen overseas that there is a high possibility some kind of official creator/UGC functionality will be prepared, but there is no official announcement at this point about its specifications or how a mechanism equivalent to FiveM will be provided on the new generation. The same goes for the timing of GTA6's PC version and the unconfirmed information referred to as the new MOD platform "ROME"; none of these are confirmed facts.

Disclaimer

This article is an explanatory piece researched and organized by GTA6 FEED based on various publicly available information, and it has no relationship whatsoever with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive. The contents include, in addition to confirmed information that has been announced, descriptions based on overseas media reporting, community records, and unconfirmed information. Figures such as player counts vary depending on the measurement method and the point in time. For the latest and accurate information, please check the official announcements from Cfx.re and Rockstar Games. Also, please be sufficiently wary of false articles claiming to have "actually played" and of unofficial fake pre-order sites.