The next installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise might be pushed until 2026, but gamers are eating up every morsel of detail that developer Rockstar Games is releasing to the public.
Case in point: Rockstar released the second trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI on Tuesday, and the company tells The Hollywood Reporter that it has received over 475 million views across platforms.
For comparison, the first trailer for the game, which was released all the way back in 2023, saw a relatively modest 93 million views in the same window (that trailer was a YouTube exclusive, and the biggest non-music video launch at the time on the platform). The company claims that the trailer release is the biggest video launch of all time. In the film space, the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer debuted to 365 million views in its first 24 hours, while The Fantastic Four: First Steps debuted to more than 200 million.
The response to the trailer in the form of nearly half a billion views underscores the demand for the open world game, a sequel to Grand Theft Auto V, which was released in 2013.
And that demand extends to the soundtrack. The trailer’s featured song was “Hot Together” by The Pointer Sisters (written by Sharon Robinson), and Spotify says that streams of the song soared by 182,000% since its release (no, that isn’t a typo). GTA games feature music heavily via the in-game radio stations, on missions and in cut scenes.
“Grand Theft Auto cuts through popular culture like almost nothing else,” Sulinna Ong, Spotify’s global head of editorial, said in a statement. “Music has been synonymous with the series since the very beginning, so it’s great to see fans both new and established connecting with an iconic track in this way.”
GTA VI is by far the biggest game on the calendar over the next year, with a release date of May 26, 2026 (it was originally announced with a 2025 launch). Rockstar Games (which is owned by Strauss Zelnick’s Take-Two Interactive) has been developing th game for years, and confirmed that it was in the works back in 2022.
The company is believed to have spent north of $1 billion on its development. That said, GTA V is estimated to have grossed nearly $10 billion since its launch over a decade ago, thanks to frequent updates and new missions.
GTA VI is set in Vice City, the GTA universe’s version of Miami.
You can see the trailer below:
