GTA 6 release date: 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

Thursday 19 November 2026. That is the date, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and after two delays it has held: Rockstar set it in November 2025, Take-Two has repeated it at every earnings call since, pre-orders opened against it in June, and the preload date now published counts down to it.

This page is the short version, kept current. The full release-date guide has the history in detail; the sections below are what changes and what to plan around.

What is confirmed

Launch week, in order

1. 12 November — preload opens for anyone who pre-ordered digitally. It only starts by itself if the console is set up for it: rest mode on PS5, instant-on with automatic updates on Xbox. Have the storage free by this date, not the 19th.
2. Between the two — expect a day-one patch on top of the preloaded files. Rockstar has not sized either.
3. 19 November — the game unlocks. Preloaded files stay locked until it does.

A boxed copy contains a download code rather than a disc, so redeeming it early puts you in the same preload window as everyone else.

The unlock time

Not announced, and worth being precise about, because the two plausible answers land on different dates for some people.

Midnight local time means 00:00 on 19 November wherever you are — the way pre-orders opened on 25 June. A single global unlock, reported as 05:00 UTC, means midnight on the US east coast, nine in the evening on the 18th on the west coast, and five in the morning in London. Rockstar has confirmed neither. The hour-by-hour country tables published elsewhere are invented; what time does GTA 6 unlock works through both scenarios and why those tables do not add up.

Rockstar has historically confirmed launch timing in the last two weeks before a release, alongside the install size. Expect early November.

Why the date moved twice

Both delays were announced by Rockstar directly.

Take-Two's line throughout has been that the extra time was Rockstar's call and about finishing properly. Everything since — pre-orders, the Extended Look gameplay reveal, a published preload date — is a marketing run behaving like one for a game that is done.

No online mode at launch

GTA VI ships as a single-player game; Take-Two has described it in those terms. GTA Online continues running after VI launches. An online successor is widely expected and entirely unannounced — no mode, no date, no scope.

PC

No PC version, no date. Rockstar released GTA V on PC about 19 months after console and Red Dead Redemption 2 about 13 months after, so late 2027 to 2028 is the reasonable expectation and nothing more than that. The PC guide has the reasoning, and why every PC spec table circulating is invented.

Still unannounced

• The unlock time
• The install size, and the size of the day-one patch
• Anything about PC
• Whether, and when, an online component follows

Each of those is added here the day Rockstar confirms it. Until then, the map of Leonida is the part of the game already open.

Changes to this page

• 8 September 2026 — page created. Date, platforms, preload and the delay history as confirmed to this point.