Grand Theft Auto VI trailer breaks MrBeast's YouTube record
Just 24 hours after it leaked, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has set the world record for most YouTube views in a single day.
The long awaited glimpse of a return to Vice City amassed more than 85 million views in 24 hours, earning itself a Guinness World Record.
Guinness World Records breaks the news on X (Twitter). Twitter
That's more than three times the population of Australia or - in the most Aussie comparison ever - 850 packed MCGs watching one video in a single day.
GTA 6 pulled more eyeballs in 24 hours than the first trailers for Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield and the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom combined.
YouTube's previous record - which excludes music videos - was set by American content creator Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by the name MrBeast and attracted 59.4 million views in 24 hours on the video Every Country on Earth Fights for $250,000.
The YouTube megastar was quick to shout out the achievement on X (Twitter). Twitter
Technically, Korean pop superstars BTS hold YouTube's overall record for the 108 million views they racked up on the song Butter, but for whatever reason, music videos are considered separately.
What makes GTA's success even more remarkable?
Developers Rockstar Games were forced to rush the trailer out early after leakers posted it online.
Rockstar Games confirmed the leak, and dropped a link to their official trailer early, on X (Twitter). Twitter
The trailer revealed that GTA 6 will be hitting Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 some time in 2025, with no word on when the game will come to PC.
It showed off a female protagonist, Lucia, who appears to go on a crime spree through crowded beaches, city highways and clubs with her partner in a Bonnie-and-Clyde scenario.
It's the first time a female lead has featured in the series which, by the time GTA 6 arrives, will be 12 years between instalments.
GTA 5 arrived on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2013. It went on to sell more than 190 million copies, making it the second best selling video game of all time behind Minecraft, earning an estimated $US8 billion ($12.15 billion) in global revenue.
In 2022, hackers leaked unreleased footage from the next iteration of GTA. The video gaming community was rocked by the emergence online of screenshots and game-play videos, which the company confirmed were real and had been leaked as the result of a "network intrusion".
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