Yes, you can pre-order Grand Theft Auto 6 for free using Microsoft Rewards points. One player plans to spend ~146,000 points earned over 7 months to lock in the Ultimate Edition.
Did you know that you can skip the $99.99 it costs to pre-order the Ultimate Edition of Grand Theft Auto VI as long as you have enough Microsoft Rewards points?
A post on Reddit shared how a player used 98,000 points, worth about $80, to lock in their GTA 6 pre-order, made possible only because Rockstar Games kept delaying the game. Another user then shared that they have enough points to pre-order the Ultimate Edition.
For those who aren't aware, Microsoft Rewards is a free program where you earn points for doing things in Microsoft's ecosystem: searching with Bing, using the Edge browser, completing short daily quizzes and quests, and so on. You rack up points over time and redeem them for gift cards, Xbox store credit, and other rewards. Funnel enough of those points into Xbox credit, and you can use them to pre-order a game for free, which is exactly what this Grand Theft Auto fan did.
Free GTA 6 Pre-Order Breakdown
| Detail | What They Did |
|---|---|
Points used | ~146,000 (about $100 in Xbox credit) |
Time to save | Around 7 months of consistent earning |
Peak earning rate | Over 22,000 points per month |
Key booster | 100 extra daily searches via new-tab features |
Goal | The GTA 6 Ultimate Edition, pre-ordered 5 months early |
The roughly 146,000 points needed for a $100 pre-order takes about seven months of steady grinding.
It's not necessarily "free" in the sense that you're technically spending your time on it, but it doesn't require a massive effort either.
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If you're deliberate about it, like this Reddit user was, you can earn just as much through hours of searches, quizzes, and daily quests spread across seven months. For someone who is probably using Edge and Bing daily anyway, it is close to free. Birthday week and month bonuses can pad your points, and the usual boosters apply, such as additional Edge browser activity, quizzes, and Xbox quests. Unfortunately, waiting for seven months means you'll miss out on the pre-order bonus for GTA 6, but hey, it's free, right?
Whether that is worth it is a different conversation already and depends entirely on how you value your time.
Just be warned that if you pay for a pre-order fully with Microsoft Rewards or your Microsoft account balance, the charge happens right there and then. Normally, a pre-order does not charge you until the game is about to release, but Microsoft's balance payments work differently. Most assume that it's like a normal pre-order and get caught off guard. It doesn't. Knowing the charge happens right away lets you plan around it.
This is actually good news though. Redeeming everything now, months before GTA 6 arrives in November, actually protects your points from expiring if left alone for at least 12 months.
With that said, credit where it is due. Gaming a system legitimately to pre-order a controversial upgrade for a franchise that's all about doing illegal things is the kind of stuff that society comes up with that's genuinely making it difficult for fiction to top.