It feels like most of the internet, A-list models/celebrities and professional drivers included, has already booked the days up to and including November 19 off work for Grand Theft Auto VI. So, for those who haven't yet, the FOMO is real, but what if you didn't follow the tide? Hear us out. What if the better pick for most adults to take the day off for GTA 6 is on November 20?
For all of Rockstar Games' preparations, launch day will likely be a mess of midnight unlocks, last-minute downloads and hammered servers. The day after is when you can sit down and properly play the biggest game in years.
You see, GTA 6 unlocks at midnight in your local time, which sounds great until you remember what midnight means. New Zealand goes first and North America goes nearly last, a spread of around 19 hours, so a US player who booked the 19th off is really looking at a game that drops in the dead middle of the night before. You either stay up like a student or you start your day-off groggy and behind.
Then there is the download size. GTA 6 is a roughly 210 GB install. With releases this size, part of the download often unlocks only at the moment it goes live, and a day-one patch is common. Whether GTA 6 follows that script, we will find out at midnight. What's a sure thing is that on launch night, millions of Grand Theft Auto fans will download at once. The expected traffic is even making internet service providers like Spectrum hand out free gigabit speed.
Launch day itself is historically rough, at least online. Rockstar’s servers buckle at the best of times. A global GTA 6 launch is not the best of times. The bet is that a day later the crush has thinned, any patch is in and the game runs closer to how it is meant to. Nothing is guaranteed, Rockstar launches can stay messy for more than a day, but the odds may have improved by then.
Besides, a day off work is precious, so you'll want to spend it playing. If you book it on November 19, you may have to download, patch and pray to the internet gods that it won't take you hours to enjoy GTA 6. However, if you follow our advice, you could preload and download GTA 6 while you're at work and wake up the next day to a finished install, calmer servers and a clean run at Vice City with nothing left to set up.
November 19 vs November 20
— | November 19 | November 20 (What You're Hoping For) |
|---|---|---|
The game | Unlocks at midnight, possible final download at release | Most of the install and patch likely done |
Servers | Peak launch-day crush | Crush likely eased |
Your energy | Up all night or groggy | Rested and ready |
The vibe | Admin and waiting | A better shot at a proper play day |
Booking November 20 off means most of the download times, the patch and the server chaos are no longer that big of an issue.
There is a real case for the 19th, to be fair. Midnight unlocks are sort of a longstanding gaming tradition and the launch-night energy is part of the fun. If you can pre-load and pull an all-nighter, nothing beats being there at the jump. Spoilers are the other worry, because the game will be everywhere online within hours, so waiting a day means dodging a lot of it. If that is you, take both days and enjoy every minute. For everyone else who can't afford to take more than a single day of leave, though, the maths favours the morning after.
Make no mistake, actual and normal people are rationing their leave for this. HR data shows a time-off surge that Grand Theft Auto V had never caused, one company is closing entirely for launch and an analyst has estimated that the game could cost the US economy a billion dollars in a day and so much more.
So our recommendation is to clock in as you would on launch day, go on a social media blackout and spend the day after in Leonida with a better chance of GTA 6 being fully downloaded and the servers behaving. You will have waited eleven years. What's one more day of self-control, right?