Rockstar set to break records with GTA VI trailer: how its metrics compare to reveals of previous games
Rockstar has finally unveiled the first teaser trailer for GTA VI. As expected, it quickly turned into the industry’s biggest news, generating dozens of millions of views within hours.
Initially, Rockstar planned to premier the first GTA VI trailer at 9 am ET today, December 5. However, the full video suddenly leaked, causing the studio to release it hours ahead of its original schedule.
The trailer, which is 90 seconds long, showcases the next-gen version of Vice City located in the Florida-inspired state of Leonida. It is centered around one of the two main characters, Lucia, who will be come the series’ first female protagonist since 1999.
According to the announcement, GTA VI is expected to come out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2025 (the PC version should traditionally launch later). This is in line with previous speculations and financial reports from Take-Two, which expected a significant increase in net bookings in FY24 and FY25 (ending March 31, 2025).
The first GTA VI trailer quickly went trending globally, collecting over 60 million views in the first 12 hours. At the moment of writing, the count stands at the 65 million mark and continues to grow.
For comparison, the debut trailer for GTA V generated over 97 million views in 12 years, remaining the most viewed video on Rockstar’s YouTube channel. With the current dynamic, GTA VI has every chance to pass this mark in its first 24-48 hours.
According to Guinness World Records, “it’s not even been 24 hours yet, but we can confirm that the GTA VI trailer is already the most viewed videogame reveal on YouTube in 24 hours.”
The biggest question is how quickly the trailer for the new Grand Theft Auto game will be able to cross the 100 million mark. For example, BTS’ official music videos for their songs, Dynamite and Butter, hold the YouTube record for the fastest videos to reach 100 million views (less than 24 hours).
Subway Surfers’ official Google Play trailer still holds the crown as the most viewed video game trailer on YouTube — over 361 million (since September 2012). However, many may question this achievement since a large portion of the views were likely generated via paid ads.
Speaking of trailers for other Rockstar titles, GTA VI is already above all of them. GTA V’s official gameplay video has nearly 40 million views (since July 2013), followed by Red Dead Redemption 2’s trailers #3 and #2 with 37 million views (since May 2018) and 34 million views (since September 2017), respectively.
Interestingly, Rockstar’s post on X (formerly Twitter) announcing the GTA VI trailer’s release date has already reached 187 million views and over 2 million likes. It is now the most liked gaming tweet of all time, followed by another Rockstar post (also about GTA VI) with 1.6 million likes.
The hype for the project is real, making it likely the most anticipated game right now. It will be the first installment in the Grand Theft Auto series since 2013. Last year, hackers leaked footage from the early version of the game. It was later found out that a UK teen was one of the key persons behind the crime, and he and another suspect were set to be eventually sentenced by a judge.
GTA V, the previous and the most successful installment in the series, sold 11.2 million copies in its first 24 hours, generating over $815 million in revenue globally. Its lifetime sales currently exceed 190 million copies. This makes it the second best-selling video game of all time, behind only Minecraft with over 300 million units sold. So it is interesting to see how GTA VI will perform commercially and what records it will be able to break upon its launch.
