Bud Burruss has blocked out five days off work the week before Thanksgiving, and he isn’t traveling anywhere. The 36-year-old software engineer intends to spend the entire stretch inside “Grand Theft Auto VI,” and his kids have already been warned about what November is going to look like.
“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.”
Plenty of others are doing the same math. Analytics firm Newzoo estimates that sales could clear $4.5 billion by the close of launch week, with global preorders already sitting around $260 million. Both figures come from outside observers — neither Rockstar Games or Take-Two has released numbers of its own.
The vacation-day math is getting silly
In São Paulo, Brazil, 34-year-old Guilherme Stephano is spending 10 vacation days on the launch. For him, that counts as holding back: he cleared 20 days off for “Red Dead Redemption 2” back in 2018.
“I’m a completionist,” Stephano said — once a game has his attention, he has to play it through to the finish.
Anna Ray, 30, works in medical sales and wrestles professionally in Arkansas. Before filing her time-off request, she wanted some assurance the release date would actually stick.
“It has been rescheduled so many times that I’m like, you know what, if we are for sure doing this on Nov. 19, I’m taking Thursday to Thursday off,” Ray said.
Her skepticism is earned
Rockstar confirmed the game was in development back in 2022 and revealed it in December 2023. The schedule has slipped again and again since, with pushbacks in the fall of 2025 and once more in May 2026.
As it stands, Nov. 19 is the date on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. No PC release date has been announced.
Nearly half a billion views before anyone has played it
Between them, the first two trailers have racked up close to half a billion views on YouTube — currently the sharpest measure available of how much appetite is out there.
The most recent trailer bypassed the standard playbook altogether and debuted exclusively on Netflix on Aug. 27.
The appeal was never the plot
Since its 1997 debut, the series has dropped players into open worlds full of street crime, reckless driving and half-naked adults. Divisive, obviously — and still among the biggest franchises gaming has ever produced, mostly thanks to all the things you can do while the main story sits untouched: assembling a car collection, driving a cab, playing a round of golf.
“Grand Theft Auto V” landed in 2013, pulled in more than $1 billion and has moved 475 million copies according to reported figures. Holding an audience for thirteen years is no small feat, and the hook held.
Which leads to the wrinkle that ought to alarm HR departments more than any PTO request. A few players are so determined to clear their schedules that they’re reenlisting in the army — because doing so earns them a four-day pass timed to the game’s release.