New Delhi: The internet got a new pope before GTA VI. Fans tried to draw the game’s map before they could drive a single road in it. And now, a week before Rockstar opens the gates to Vice City, people are booking leave to play. At Logitech, there’s a day off for that.
There’s money behind the madness. Market research firm Sensor Tower estimates that Grand Theft Auto VI has already drawn more than $1 billion in digital pre-orders, with about 10.3 million copies ordered across PlayStation 5 and Xbox. About three-quarters were on PlayStation. Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has yet to release its own tally, though CEO Strauss Zelnick said orders were running well ahead of expectations. The game comes out on 19 November.
We got everything before GTA VI
Thirteen years and two delays gave the internet plenty of time to turn the wait into a joke. A new pope? The Nintendo Switch 2? Both arrived before GTA VI. Now fans on Reddit are wondering what happens to the meme when the game actually comes out. One suggestion was to start counting everything that happens before GTA VII.
Other fans spent the wait poring over trailers and screenshots, using Florida’s real geography to piece together Rockstar’s fictional state of Leonida. One YouTuber went a step further and built his version of the new map inside GTA V. The first GTA VI trailer alone racked up more than 90 million YouTube views in 24 hours.
Vice City gets a launch weekend
Kai Cenat gave himself two weeks to finish five Grand Theft Auto games before the sixth came out. The Twitch streamer announced a marathon that would take him from GTA III through Vice City, San Andreas and GTA IV to GTA V. German streamer Sterzik is going for a different kind of marathon. He and three other creators are planning a 48-hour Twitch charity stream that starts on 17 November and runs into launch day.
There’s already a sense of how big the audience could be. More than 9,000 streamers covered Rockstar’s August gameplay reveal, and close to four million people were watching at the busiest moment across the official broadcast and creators’ streams, according to Streams Charts. Twitch accounted for the largest share of watch time, followed by YouTube and Kick. That was for a look at the game. On 19 November, viewers will get to watch streamers find their own way around Vice City.
In Miami, the Heat are giving their home court and uniforms a Vice City makeover for their 18 November game. Then, on Saturday, Rockstar and PlayStation are throwing a music festival in Wynwood with Travis Scott, Cardi B and a DJ set from Justice, the French duo behind the game’s original score.
The record GTA VI is chasing
In 2013, GTA V took three days to reach $1 billion in retail sales. That’s the benchmark hanging over the new game’s opening weekend. The estimated billion for GTA VI comes from digital orders placed since June. The older figure covers retail sales in the three days after release. The launch will show how much demand is still waiting on the sidelines.
Part of the reason the wait feels so long is that the last game never really went away. GTA V has sold more than 230 million copies, and GTA Online kept players coming back for years with new missions and activities. When Rockstar finally put out the first GTA VI trailer in 2023, it drew more than 90 million YouTube views in 24 hours. The new game returns to Vice City, Rockstar’s take on Miami, and follows Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval into the surrounding, Florida-inspired state of Leonida.
The launch has already started in one sense. Rockstar opened digital pre-loads on 10 November, so buyers can download the game before it unlocks. Boxed copies are due to go on sale on 12 November and contain a download code. Players who pick one up early can get the download out of the way, too. Both groups still have to wait until 19 November to play.
A day off to play
Logitech’s Logi Game Day gives about 7,000 employees worldwide, including interns, one day off over the next year to play a game of their choice. The company has told staff they’re welcome to spend it in Vice City on launch day.
Some players had already put in for leave. One fan told MarketWatch he’d pre-ordered the game and asked for paid time off that Thursday because he didn’t want to wait. After 13 years, apparently even Friday was asking too much.