The first GTA VI trailer leaked in the evening, and Rockstar put it online straight away: Lucia, Vice City, a Bonnie and Clyde pair and a 2025 window. It then broke a YouTube viewing record.
Sources ign.com · eurogamer.net · variety.com · polygon.com
I told you "early December". It came a day early, and not the way it was planned. According to IGN, moments after it leaked on social media Rockstar Games officially unveiled the video. Eurogamer quotes the studio's post on X: "Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube." It had been due the next day, 5 December.
Ninety seconds, and one point above all: the title is simply Grand Theft Auto VI, and the 2025 release window appears at the end. Eurogamer describes a sweep over Vice City, crowded beaches, airboats in the swamp, flamingos, a container port, TikTok-style clips and a strip club. It is all there.
At the centre is Lucia, the series' first female protagonist. She starts behind bars and quips "bad luck, I guess". Later, alongside a man whose name we do not yet know, she says the only way through is sticking together, per IGN. The track is Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road". The Bonnie and Clyde pairing hinted at by the 2022 leak is confirmed.
Variety relays YouTube: more than 93 million views in 24 hours, a record for a non-music video. Polygon leans on Guinness World Records and adds 8.9 million likes in a day, while noting that Guinness is not always a flawless source. Only two BTS videos did better in 24 hours, according to YouTube.
The "2025" did not hold: Take-Two first narrowed it to fall 2025, then Rockstar moved to 26 May 2026, before the current date of 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. A second trailer followed in May 2025. Preload opens on 12 November, and nothing is announced for PC.
This trailer set the game's two faces, Lucia and her partner, and the tone of the story. It also set a habit: every frame of GTA VI is now dissected to the second, a fine playground for hidden clues, which we still follow in the journal.
Sources ign.com · eurogamer.net · variety.com · polygon.com
By Amélie · VI Countdown newsroom, OKALAM Studio