GTA 6 Survey: Gamers May Skip the NFL and Hunger Games to Play in Leonida

✅ CONFIRMED — the survey results below are confirmed GameSquare findings; the launch-day behaviour they describe is stated intent, not a measured outcome.

Grand Theft Auto VI has not launched yet, but a 1,000-person survey says it is already rearranging how American gamers plan to spend launch week. GameSquare’s “Grand Theft Auto Effect” survey, published on October 20, 2026, found that 70% of respondents may skip sports they normally watch to play more, 42% are less likely to watch NFL games on the first weekend after release, and 39% are less likely to see The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on its opening weekend. The poll’s headline is not a single number — it is how widely one Thursday, November 19, 2026, reaches beyond gaming.

Quick answer: GameSquare surveyed 1,000 full-time US employees who identify as gamers and found GTA 6 competing with work, sport and cinema at once: 70% may skip sports, 42% may skip NFL games on launch weekend, 39% may skip the new Hunger Games film, and 51% rank GTA 6 as the fall’s biggest cultural moment.

Key takeaways

• GameSquare’s October 20, 2026 survey covered 1,000 full-time US employees who identify as gamers, with a 3% margin of error.
• 70% said they may skip sports they normally watch to make more room for gaming, and 42% said they will be less likely to watch NFL games on GTA 6’s first weekend.
• 39% said GTA 6 makes them less likely to see The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on its opening weekend, which begins the day after launch.
• 51% ranked GTA 6 as the biggest cultural moment of the fall, ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, Dune: Part 3, the new Hunger Games film and a Zelda remake.
• 84% plan to buy the game, and respondents expect to spend about $400 on average on the game and related items — but every figure here measures stated intent, not observed behaviour.

What did the GTA 6 GameSquare survey actually ask?

GameSquare surveyed 1,000 full-time US employees who identify as gamers and asked how GTA 6’s November 19, 2026 launch would affect their work, viewing and spending, publishing the results on October 20, 2026 under the title “The Grand Theft Auto Effect” with a stated margin of error of 3%.

The sample boundary matters more than any single percentage. Every respondent already plays games and works full time, so the poll describes gamers, not the whole American workforce. That does not make the results uninteresting; it makes them specific.

Gamers were also asked what they most look forward to: exploring the new open world led with 35%, ahead of graphics (25%) and characters and story (22%). The median gamer planned about 15 hours of play during the first weekend.

Will GTA 6 really hurt NFL ratings?

The survey suggests some drag on NFL viewing, not a ratings collapse: 70% of respondents said they may skip sports they normally watch to make more room for gaming, and a more specific 42% said they will be less likely to watch NFL games during the first weekend the game is out.

The 70% is the softer number: “may skip sports” covers a single missed game or a whole weekend away from the television, and the survey does not separate those. The 42% NFL figure is narrower because it names a league and a weekend — November 21–22, 2026, in the middle of the NFL regular season.

Even so, intent is not ratings: a gamer who says they are “less likely” to watch may still catch a game, and a small drift is hard to separate from normal week-to-week variation. For context on how other releases have already moved around GTA 6, see our GTA 6 release evacuation: the games that fled November article.

Why is The Hunger Games in GTA 6’s shadow?

The Hunger Games film is in GTA 6’s shadow because its opening weekend begins the day after the game’s launch, and 39% of surveyed gamers said GTA 6 makes them less likely to see The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on that weekend.

Opening weekends carry outsized weight for a film, which is why a 39% figure inside a gamer sample still matters to a distributor — even though it cannot be translated into a 39% hit on ticket sales, since the film also draws viewers who never touch a console.

A young-adult franchise and a blockbuster game are chasing the same evenings in the same week. GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; our GTA 6 release date countdown tracks every confirmed launch detail.

How much will gamers spend around GTA 6’s launch?

GameSquare’s respondents said they expect to spend about $400 on average on the game and related items, with 84% planning to buy the game itself and 26% calling it their top spending priority this fall.

Some 77% said they may buy at least one extra item, with a gaming chair (27%), an upgraded screen or television (27%) and better speakers or headphones (24%) most likely. Those are plans, not receipts — the Standard Edition costs $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition $99.99. See our GTA 6 pre-order guide: editions, prices and bonuses and our GTA 6 price and editions compared.

On work, 42% believed they may be less productive after launch, 10% plan to skip work on launch day, and another 30% were considering time off — of whom 36% said they would call in “sick”. We already fact-checked the viral extrapolation of those figures in our GTA 6 sick day: will 1.5 million workers really cost the US $1 billion? article — the survey itself contains neither figure.

What does the survey NOT prove?

The survey does not prove that millions will skip work, that NFL ratings will fall, or that a film will flop — it proves only what 1,000 self-identified gamer employees said they might do, weeks before launch, within a 3% margin of error.

Three caveats keep every headline honest. First, the sample is gamers only, so no figure describes all workers, viewers or cinemagoers. Second, stated intent routinely overshoots behaviour: leave gets denied and plans change. Third, the survey never modelled the economy — the 1.5 million and $1 billion figures came from secondary estimates, not GameSquare’s data, and later reporting noted they rest on no published study.

GTA 6 vs the fall’s biggest releases

The comparison set itself is the story: GameSquare put a console game beside three theatrical tentpoles and a Nintendo remake, and its gamer sample put the game first — a fair sceptical reading, but still a majority choosing a Rockstar title over a Marvel film.

What this means

This survey is best read as a map of launch-week attention, not as a casualty count. Work, sport and cinema are three places the same hours can go, and GTA 6 is the reason those hours are suddenly contested.

For players, the practical takeaway is simpler: book the day off properly rather than calling in sick, and pre-load from November 12. Attendance, ratings and box-office data after November 19 will show how much of this stated intent turned into real behaviour.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• GameSquare Holdings press release: “GameSquare Announces The ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Effect” (October 20, 2026)
• Tech Insider: “GTA VI Survey: 10% Plan to Skip Work Launch Day” (October 24, 2026)
• ZME Science: “Could GTA VI Sick Leave Really Cost the US Economy Over $1 Billion?”

Every percentage above was verified against GameSquare’s own October 20, 2026 press release, with Tech Insider’s October 24, 2026 analysis and ZME Science’s fact-check used as independent second sources for the sample, the margin of error and the distinction between the survey’s own figures and the secondary 1.5 million / $1 billion estimates. Rockstar Games has made no statement about this survey, and no claim in this article treats stated survey intent as observed launch-week behaviour.