GTA Online: Shake Up and Top Marks, two new Deathmatches with shifting loadouts
Two new Deathmatches arrived in GTA Online in April 2023: Shake Up, with a random weapon every life, and Top Marks, with loadouts based on whether you're winning or losing.
This article is from April 20, 2023. Some details may have changed since then.
Add GTA House as a preferred news sourceSee more of our GTA, Red Dead and Rockstar Games news on Google.Add on Google (opens in a new tab)On April 20, 2023, GTA Online added two new Deathmatches built on a shared idea: your weapon isn't your choice — it depends on how the match is going.
Shake Up
A Free-for-All where every time you kill an opponent or respawn, you get a different random weapon. The twist is melee: melee weapons, fists included, kill in one hit, so going bare-knuckle can be a legitimate strategy when luck isn't on your side.
Top Marks
A Team Deathmatch where loadouts and radar blip behaviour change depending on whether your team is tied, winning or losing. It rebalances matches on the fly — or, as Rockstar put it, “try not to spend the whole time losing.”
How they launched
Both paid 3X GTA$ and RP in their launch week, which coincided with 4/20: double Short Trips, double Weed Farm production, free Sprunk gear and triple Lamar Contact Missions.
Why it matters
GTA Online's classic Deathmatches lean heavily on who has the best arsenal unlocked. Shake Up and Top Marks level the field: in the first, everyone is at the mercy of chance; in the second, the losing side gets a hand. The same tools — dynamic teams and loadout changes — reached the Job Creator shortly after with the San Andreas Mercenaries improvements, so the community could use them in its own modes.
