It was probably the most chaotic 24 hours in the history of the internet. If you were online that night, you remember the absolute meltdown. People had been waiting literally a decade. Ten years of "where is GTA 6?" memes, fake leaks, and clicking on clickbait YouTube videos that showed nothing but modded GTA 5 footage. Then, in the blink of an eye, the dam finally broke.
So, when did the GTA 6 trailer come out? Officially, it dropped on December 4, 2023.
But that's not the whole story. Not even close. Rockstar Games originally had this big, grand premiere scheduled for the morning of December 5. They’d even put up a countdown on YouTube. The world was ready to wake up, grab a coffee, and witness history together at 9 AM ET. Instead, a low-res, leaked version of the trailer with a massive "BUY BITCOIN" watermark plastered across the screen started circulating on X (formerly Twitter).
Rockstar didn’t wait. They didn’t put out a corporate statement or try to file a thousand DMCA takedowns. They basically just said "screw it" and hit the publish button on the real thing 15 hours early.
The Night the Internet Broke
Honestly, the way it happened was kinda legendary. At 6:10 PM ET on that Monday, the official Rockstar Games account posted: "Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube."
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Short. Punchy. Very Rockstar.
The views didn't just climb; they exploded. Within the first 24 hours, the trailer racked up over 93 million views. It absolutely demolished the record for the most-viewed non-music video debut in YouTube history. People weren't just watching it once. They were frame-fucking every single second to see if the rumors about a female protagonist were true. (They were. Hi, Lucia.)
Key Facts from Trailer 1:
- Official Release Date: December 4, 2023 (after the leak).
- Scheduled Date: December 5, 2023.
- Song: "Love Is a Long Road" by Tom Petty.
- The "Florida Man" Factor: The trailer was packed with real-life parodies of Florida viral videos, from the lady with two hammers to the alligator in the convenience store.
Why the Date Matters So Much Now
We’re sitting here in 2026, and that first trailer feels like a lifetime ago. Back then, the trailer ended with a big, bold 2025 release window. As we all know by now, that didn't stick.
After a second trailer dropped on May 6, 2025—which gave us the Pointer Sisters' "Hot Together" and a much deeper look at Jason and Lucia’s relationship—Rockstar eventually had to break some hearts. Following a few internal delays and the need for what they called "extra polish," the official release date for Grand Theft Auto VI is now firmly set for November 19, 2026.
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It’s a long road. Tom Petty was right.
What Happened with Trailer 2?
If the first trailer was the "vibe check," the second one was the "mechanics check." When it came out in May 2025, it didn't quite hit the 100-million-in-a-day mark like the first one, but it was arguably more important for hardcore fans. It confirmed that the game was being captured on PS5 hardware, silencing the people who thought the first trailer was just "CGI magic."
Rockstar also updated their website with roughly 70 screenshots at that time. We saw more of the state of Leonida, including the "Grassrivers" (the GTA version of the Everglades) and Port Gellhorn. It’s weird to think that between the first trailer in late '23 and the second in mid '25, we went almost a year and a half with basically zero official info. Rockstar’s silence is a specialized form of torture, honestly.
The Leaks That Forced Rockstar's Hand
You can’t talk about when the trailer came out without mentioning the 2022 leaks. A teenager managed to get into Rockstar’s internal Slack and stole 90 videos of early development footage. That was the first time we saw the modern-day Vice City setting and the "Bonnie and Clyde" dynamic.
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A lot of people think the December 2023 trailer release was a direct response to the pressure from those leaks, but Rockstar has always maintained they were celebrating their 25th anniversary. Either way, the 2022 leak was the appetizer, and the 2023 trailer was the main course that confirmed everything we’d been whispering about for years.
Records Shattered by the Numbers
Just look at how the first trailer performed over time. By November 2025, Trailer 1 had hit 268 million views. It eventually surpassed the Avengers: Infinity War trailer to become the most-watched trailer of any kind on YouTube.
The cultural impact was wild. Tom Petty’s "Love Is a Long Road" saw a 36,979% increase in Spotify streams in just a few days. Small businesses in Florida even started trying to claim they were the inspiration for the "Leonida" storefronts shown in the clips.
What You Should Do Next
If you're still obsessing over the trailers while waiting for November 19, 2026, there are a few things you can actually do to prep:
- Check Your Hardware: Rockstar has confirmed the game is launching exclusively on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. If you’re still on a PS4 or waiting for a PC version on day one, you’re going to be disappointed. The PC version likely won't arrive until 2027 or early 2028.
- Revisit the Soundtrack: If you want to get into the Leonida mood, the "GTA 6 Trailer" playlists on Spotify are actually pretty great. They mix the confirmed songs with 80s synth-pop and modern Florida rap that fits the vibe.
- Watch for the Earnings Call: Take-Two (Rockstar's parent company) has an earnings call scheduled for February 3, 2026. These calls are usually where we get the most "real" news about whether the November release date is actually safe or if another delay is lurking.
The wait is almost over, even if "almost" still means several months of staring at the same two trailers. Just stay away from the fake "leaked gameplay" on TikTok—it's still just modded GTA 5.