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Awards and Reception

Grand Theft Auto VI has won every pre-release award it has been nominated for. As of early 2026, the game holds five wins across The Game Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards. Its two official trailers broke multiple viewership records, including three Guinness World Records for Trailer 1 and the all-time cross-platform video launch record for Trailer 2.

Awards

GTA VI has won Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards in both 2024 and 2025, and Most Wanted Game at the Golden Joystick Awards in both 2024 and 2025. Trailer 2 also won Best Game Trailer at the 2025 Golden Joysticks. This makes GTA VI the only game in history to win both ceremonies' top anticipation categories in two consecutive years.

Golden Joystick Awards

At the 2024 Golden Joystick Awards (November 21, 2024), Rockstar's Publishing Director David Manley accepted the Most Wanted Game award and stated: "There's an incredible amount of people doing amazing things on Grand Theft Auto 6. Absolutely mind-blowing things." The game beat out Assassin's Creed Shadows, Death Stranding 2, Doom: The Dark Ages, Fable, Ghost of Yotei, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Mafia: The Old Country, and Monster Hunter Wilds.

At the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards, GTA VI won Most Wanted Game for a second consecutive year with 18.03% of the vote. The Witcher 4 finished close behind at 16.68%. GTA VI joined an exclusive group: only The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2013, 2014) and Cyberpunk 2077 (2018, 2019) had previously won the category two years running. Trailer 2 also won Best Game Trailer, beating out Battlefield 6, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and others. No one from Rockstar attended the ceremony to accept either award.

The Game Awards

GTA VI won Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards 2024 (December 12, 2024) over Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yotei, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and Monster Hunter Wilds. Both categories at The Game Awards are fan-voted.

At The Game Awards 2025 (December 11, 2025), GTA VI won the category again, beating 007 First Light, Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil Requiem, and The Witcher 4.

Trailer 1 Records

Trailer 1 was released on December 4, 2023, a day earlier than planned after it leaked online. Despite the premature release, it immediately broke multiple records.

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records officially certified three records for Trailer 1:

Trailer 1 also became the fastest non-music video to reach 10 million, 20 million, 50 million, and 100 million views on YouTube. Within 72 hours it had passed 120 million views. By late 2025, the trailer had accumulated over 270 million total views, surpassing the Avengers: Infinity War trailer to become the most viewed non-ad trailer on YouTube.

Trailer 2 Records

Trailer 2 was released on May 6, 2025. Unlike Trailer 1, which was initially a YouTube-exclusive release, Trailer 2 launched simultaneously across YouTube, TikTok, X (Twitter), and other platforms.

Cross-Platform Record

Rockstar Games reported to The Hollywood Reporter that Trailer 2 accumulated 475 million views across all platforms within its first 24 hours. This made it the biggest video launch of all time, surpassing the Deadpool and Wolverine trailer (365 million views in 24 hours).

YouTube Performance

The YouTube-only 24-hour count (69 million) did not surpass Trailer 1's YouTube record (90.4 million) because Trailer 2's audience was distributed across multiple platforms rather than concentrated on YouTube alone. The trailer reached 1 million YouTube likes in approximately 40 minutes and accumulated 4.7 million likes shortly after launch.

Music Streaming Impact

The Pointer Sisters' 1986 song "Hot Together," featured in Trailer 2, saw a 182,000% surge in Spotify streams within two hours of the trailer's release. Trailer 1's song, Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road," saw a similar spike when that trailer dropped in December 2023. For more on the game's soundtrack, see the dedicated article.

Social Media Records

Rockstar's announcement of Trailer 1 on X (Twitter) became the most liked gaming post on the platform, receiving approximately 1.9 million likes and 495,000 retweets with over 166 million views. It reached 1 million likes in about 3 hours and 25 minutes. Rockstar Games holds several of the most liked gaming posts on X, all related to GTA VI. On Instagram, the trailer announcement received over 2 million likes.

Industry Expectations

Industry analysts have projected record-breaking commercial performance for GTA VI. DFC Intelligence projected over $1 billion in pre-orders alone, which would exceed GTA V's $800 million first-day revenue. Analysts estimate approximately $3.2 billion in first-year revenue and around 40 million copies sold in the first 12 months.

IDG Consulting CEO Yoshio Osaki called GTA VI "one of the biggest entertainment launches in history, not just in games but for all of media." Multiple publishers reportedly adjusted their release schedules to avoid competing directly with GTA VI's launch window.