Exactly 24 hours ago, Rockstar released the first highly-anticipated trailer of Grand Theft Auto 6 earlier than planned following a leak. Despite the hiccup, the trailer has been incredibly successful.
After a full day on YouTube, the video has achieved 90 million views, 8.6 million likes, and 250,000 dislikes (albeit these are hidden by default), with 706,688 comments.
For the sake of comparison, the debut trailer of Grand Theft Auto V received 99 million views in the whole 12 years it has been online since November 2011. The first trailer of Grand Theft Auto IV isn't even close, with just over 8 million views.
Looking outside of the GTA franchise, the most popular Fortnite trailer achieved 64 million views on YouTube. The PS4 reveal trailer is the most-viewed on PlayStation's channel with 43 million views.
The Minecraft Village & Pillage Update launch trailer that dominates the official Xbox channel is at 40 million views, while Super Mario Odyssey holds the record on Nintendo of America's channel, with 55 million views.
It's rather obvious that the popularity of the franchise has grown exponentially since the launch of the previous mainline titles of the series, with Gran Theft Auto V having shipped an absolutely crazy 190 million units in ten years since its release in 2013.
With such a long time since the previous game, the fans of the franchise are absolutely starved for a new chapter, eager to see and analyze every frame of the trailer, likely several times over.
While Grand Theft Auto V has been extremely successful, it has spanned three console generations, having recently landed on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S after having debuted on PS3 and Xbox 360, speeding across the PS4 and Xbox One generation.
With its fanbase asking and never receiving further single-player content, having to rely on Grand Theft Auto Online to get more enjoyment out of the franchise, it's not so surprising that the hype for a whole new game is at crazy levels.
Yesterday we learned that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released in 2025, so we have at least 13 months (and likely more) to wait before we set foot in the renewed streets of Vice City.
At the moment, the only announced platforms are PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with no mention of a PC release.
We'll have to wait and see whether the new game will be as mind-bogglingly successful as its predecessor or not, just as we'll have to see whether it'll manage to live up to its incredible hype. For now, Grand Theft Auto 6 certainly has the gamers' attention.
