Description

The first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI was released on December 4, 2023, at around 11 PM (UTC) on Rockstar Games’ official social media channels. Due to the trailer leaking online, Rockstar decided to publish it 15 hours earlier than originally scheduled in their official announcement.

Trailer Announcement

On November 8, 2023, Rockstar Games posted on their social media, announcing that the first trailer for the next part in the Grand Theft Auto series would be released in December 2023.

"We are very excited to let you know that in early December, we will release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto. We look forward to many more years of sharing these experiences with all of you."

Full text of that post

Later, on December 1, 2023, a photo was published on their social media pages officially confirming the release date for the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. It was scheduled for Tuesday, December 5 at 9 AM (ET).
This post quickly gained massive traction and, at the time, became the most popular post ever on Rockstar Games’ accounts — reaching 225 million views and 1 million likes on X (formerly Twitter), and 6 million likes on Instagram.

Trailer Leak

On December 4, 2023, the first GTA 6 trailer was leaked online nearly a full day before its official premiere. It was uploaded by an unknown user on X (formerly Twitter), with a “BUY BITCOIN” message overlaid on the video — an attempt to manipulate the cryptocurrency’s price for personal gain.
As later revealed, the trailer ended up in his hands after he purchased access to YouTube’s admin panel from a dishonest employee at the video hosting platform.
The leaked video was real but of significantly lower quality, featuring heavy compression artifacts and a low bitrate. Despite this, it spread rapidly across social media before Take-Two began issuing takedown notices en masse.
That same day, Rockstar released the trailer officially — 15 hours ahead of the scheduled time.

Trailer Success

Immediately after its release, the first GTA 6 trailer began achieving extraordinary results. Within the first 24 hours, the trailer accumulated over 90 million views and 5 million likes on YouTube, and remained at the top of the Trending tab for quite some time.
After 33 hours, the trailer surpassed the 100 million views mark, outpacing even the first GTA 5 trailer, which over 12 years garnered only 95 million views.
This video became the most popular non-music video on YouTube, reaching the highest number of views within a single day.