Netflix executives can honestly claim this week that a video game trailer outdrew Robert De Niro. No metaphor required.
Grand Theft Auto VI’s gameplay premiere finished last week as the most-viewed item on Netflix Inc.’s charts, racking up 31.1 million views and leaving a new De Niro picture — plus the rest of the catalog — behind it.
Six hours of exclusivity did the heavy lifting
Running just under 27 minutes, the clip showcases the open-world crime title ahead of a release date set for Nov. 19. For six hours, Netflix was the only place to watch it before the footage spread to YouTube and rival video platforms.
Those six hours proved decisive. According to the company, the reveal opened at number one in 87 of the 93 countries Netflix measures worldwide, finishing ahead of both the new film The Whisper Man and Outer Banks’ fifth season.
The view count deserves an asterisk, since it isn’t calculated the way most people assume. Rather than counting unique viewers who hit play, Netflix adds up total hours watched and divides that figure by the title’s runtime. YouTube’s methodology differs — one reason the 2023 debut trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has climbed to 293 million views there while setting multiple viewership records.
Netflix has never done this for a game before
Never before had the streamer carried promotional material for an upcoming video game in this fashion. Then, very little about Grand Theft Auto VI follows precedent. Its predecessor moved north of 230 million copies, and the sequel is projected to rank among the highest-grossing entertainment releases ever made.
It’s not hard to understand why a streaming service would want to host that moment.
The leaks came first
During the run-up to the premiere, over a dozen Grand Theft Auto VI clips surfaced online. None originated with Rockstar’s official campaign, and nothing in that material has been verified as reflecting the finished product.
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, has issued a subpoena to chat firm Discord Inc. in an effort to identify the leaker.
Which leaves this: Netflix’s biggest debut of the week was a 27-minute advertisement for a game that won’t ship until November, while its maker is in court trying to work out who spoiled it first.