'Grand Theft Auto VI' is projected to top $4.5B in sales in it's first week — anticipation is so high, fans will take time off from work to play it

“We’ve got a couple of days where we’re like, ‘Daddy’s very busy,’” the father of three said. “I’m not going to be playing it for, like, 20 hours straight like an absentee father. But right out of the gate we’re going hard.”

Others are taking longer breaks away from their laptops.

Thirty-four-year-old Guilherme Stephano, from São Paulo, Brazil, will be using 10 vacation days to play GTA VI. And that’s not as long as the break he took to play “Red Dead Redemption 2” in 2018, which was 20 days.

“I’m a completionist,” Stephano said, meaning once he starts a game he has to see it out until the end.

Why are fans excited for GTA VI?

GTA VI has been a long-time coming. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto V, was released by gaming studio Rockstar Games in 2013, making over $1 billion and selling 475 million copies, according to WSJ.

The franchise, which debuted in 1997, takes players inside an open world filled with street crime, reckless driving, and half-naked adults. Polarizing, yes, but it’s also one of the most popular gaming franchises in history because of how much time you can spend roaming around a vast city without playing the main story — building your car collection, working as a cab driver or playing a round of golf, as examples.

But fans of the franchise have been waiting for the latest title since 2022, when Rockstar Games first announced it was in development. The game was later unveiled in December 2023. But it has been delayed repeatedly, including in the fall of 2025 and in May 2026.

The game will finally release on Nov. 19 on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. A release date for PC has not yet been announced by Rockstar Games.