In a mere 22 hours, the inaugural trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has amassed an impressive 85 million views, shattering the previous record held by a video from MrBeast for the most YouTube views within a 24-hour period. It’s worth noting that this ranking excludes music videos. However, the fervor surrounding this highly anticipated game suggests that it might even surpass records held by music videos. As of now, the most-viewed YouTube video in a 24-hour timeframe is the music video for BTS’ hit song “Butter,” which garnered 108 million views in that span.
The anticipation for Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) has been building for a decade. The preceding installment in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, was released over 10 years ago in September 2013. According to Guinness World Records, it set the record for the “highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours,” raking in $815.7 million on its release day with the sale of 11.21 million copies. It currently stands as the second-best-selling video game of all time, trailing only Minecraft. the inaugural trailer
Rockstar Games, the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, had originally scheduled the trailer’s release for Tuesday morning. However, due to an early leak on Twitter, Rockstar decided to release the trailer ahead of schedule and promptly took down the leaked version.
Acknowledging the leak, Rockstar addressed the situation on Twitter, stating, “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube.” The post itself garnered 1.1 million likes and an additional 82 million views.