When Does "Red Dead Redemption 2" (2018) Take Place?
"Red Dead Redemption 2" is a western video game written by Dan Houser with Michael Unsworth and Rupert Humphries designed for the PlayStation 4 and XBOX ONE systems and released on October 26th, 2018.
It takes place on the Red Dead timeline in the year:
We know this because readable tombstones in the game's graveyards during the narrative's main action include death dates up to "May 23 1897" and characters mention the coming turn of the century in 1900 AD.
1899 AD
We know this because readable tombstones in the game's graveyards during the narrative's main action include death dates up to "May 23 1897" and characters mention the coming turn of the century in 1900 AD.
Furthermore, Uncle says, "Why we having a war with the goddamn Philippines? Who cares about the Philippines? What even are the Philippines?" and the Philippine–American War lasted from February 4th, 1899 AD to July 4th, 1902 AD. In the opening scene, Hosea Matthews exclaims, "This weather! It's May!" So it's May of 1899 AD at the beginning of the story.
This Reddit user measured the amount of time that passes over the game, without the epilogue. It was clocked at 4 months and 1 week, so the main action takes place entirely within the calendar year of 1899 AD.
This video examines its exact setting.
Additionally, there is an epilogue that starts with only the title card reading, "Some years later..." but eventually identified by a newspaper dated for 1907 AD. There are also references to the United States of America's takeover of construction on the Panama Canal, which happened in the real world on May 4th, 1904 AD. There's a title card reading "A few months later..." about one-fifth through the epilogue as well so it's unclear if it's entirely within the 1907 AD calendar year.
This video examines the epilogue's exact setting.
