This illustrated photo taken on July 1, 2026 in Krakow, Poland, shows the GTA VI website and a PlayStation DualSense controller displayed on the screen.
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Streaming platforms are struggling to handle huge demand for the first official preview of “Grand Theft Auto 6” scheduled for Thursday. take twothe parent company of the game maker, is high in the pre-market.
In a rare move, Netflix has given an in-depth look at the game for the first time. Some viewers had to refresh the page after receiving an error message indicating high usage. “Some members experienced temporary issues accessing Netflix, which quickly resolved,” the company told CNBC.
Wells Fargo analysts said the game streaming platform Twitch, where many viewers were posting their reactions, also experienced bandwidth issues when the trailer was released. Analysts added that their assessment of player reactions was “mostly positive.”
The sixth installment in the series is scheduled to launch on November 19th for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, raising hopes that it could rival its predecessor as one of the most profitable entertainment products of all time.
Global pre-orders totaled an estimated $260 million, suggesting the game could generate $4.5 billion in sales by launch week, according to analytics firm Newzoo.
“I’ve never seen Netflix release a game, and that just shows the power of this particular title. It’s in a class of its own,” Christopher Dolling, editor-in-chief and co-founder of analytics firm The Game Business, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday.
Dring pointed out that even though GTA 5 was released 13 years ago, it still ranks in the top five best-selling video games every year.
The reaction to Thursday’s gameplay debut indicates that pre-leaks of content will not impact launch commercially, he continued. Rockstar Games, which produces the GTA series, called the leak “heartbreaking.”
Shares of Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two rose 2.5% in pre-market trading on Friday.
Analysts at both Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan said in a note released Friday that they were “bullish” on the stock, pointing to increased interest in the game publisher from institutional and retail investors ahead of its highly anticipated launch.
But Wells Fargo analysts said “positive news” about a new version of the company’s separate multiplayer game, GTA Online, is also needed for Take-Two stock to achieve a continued strong valuation. They said the successful release of the GTA 6 trailer had only slightly boosted sales forecasts, but there was downside risk that sales would fall short of expectations or the release would be delayed.
Take-Two stock price.
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The GTA 6 preview follows mixed reactions from players to the news that GTA 6 will be released only as a digital download, without physical discs.
The alleged source of the leaked content claims that the leak was a protest against Rockstar’s release strategy and Sony’s plans to end disc production for the new PlayStation in 2028.
In Take-Two’s last earnings call on August 7, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that discs don’t make sense to consumers, adding that the company’s business is “well over 90% distributed digitally.”
According to data from Circana, sales of physical game discs in the U.S. have fallen to an all-time low at $85 million in spending.
The industry is hopeful that GTA 6 can boost the struggling console market, where rising costs of memory and storage have driven up prices.
Recent price increases bring the standard Xbox Series U.S. console hardware sales in July fell to their lowest level since the pandemic, reaching $282 million, according to Circana data.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this article.
