GTA 6 Launch Trailer Passes GTA 5’s Trailer: 37.8M Views in Days vs 34M in 13 Years

✅ CONFIRMED

Rockstar’s 90-second GTA 6 launch trailer has passed the lifetime YouTube view count of Grand Theft Auto 5’s original 2011 launch trailer — and it did it in roughly four days. The October 15 trailer, captured entirely in-game on a base PlayStation 5, stood at about 37.8 million YouTube views by October 18, against roughly 34 million views the 2011 trailer collected over 13 years.

Quick answer: The GTA 6 launch trailer has overtaken GTA 5’s 2011 debut trailer on YouTube — roughly 37.8 million views in about four days versus around 34 million over 13 years. GamesCreed reports more than 120 million views across all platforms, and GTA 6 is back at number one on the PlayStation Store’s trending games list.

Key takeaways

• GTA 6’s October 15 launch trailer passed GTA 5’s 2011 launch trailer on YouTube in roughly four days.
• An October 18 screenshot comparison from Game Base (260K followers) shows about 37.8 million views against roughly 34 million.
• GamesCreed reports 120 million-plus views across all platforms and five million likes, with GTA 6 back at No. 1 on the PS Store’s trending list.
• Day-one YouTube numbers were 27.85 million views and 1.4 million likes, per The Week (October 17).
• The trailer was captured entirely in-game from a base PS5, per Rockstar’s official video description.

How many views does the GTA 6 launch trailer have?

The GTA 6 launch trailer passed 37.8 million YouTube views within roughly four days of its October 15 debut, overtaking the lifetime total of GTA 5’s 2011 launch trailer. Across all platforms — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X — GamesCreed reports more than 120 million views and five million likes in the trailer’s opening days.

The YouTube-only numbers are the most precisely dated. Our day-one coverage put the trailer at 27.85 million YouTube views and 1.4 million likes in its first 24 hours, per The Week’s October 17 tally. By October 18, the viral Game Base comparison showed 37.8 million — roughly ten million more views in three days, averaging hundreds of views per second around the clock.

When did the GTA 6 trailer pass GTA 5’s trailer?

The crossover happened on or around October 18, 2026, when Game Base’s side-by-side comparison showed the new trailer at 37.8 million views against the 2011 trailer’s 34 million. public24news reported the pass within 48 hours of release — either way, a four-day-old video beat one that took 13 years to build its total.

The comparison has real viral heat behind it. Game Base’s post — a composite showing the VI sunset embrace above the two view counts — pulled 470 likes from its 260,000 followers on October 18, while a second infographic pulled 1,500 likes and 110 comments. Fans are reading the numbers as a hype index for the November 19 launch.

How do the two launch trailers compare?

GTA 5’s trailer launched in November 2011 and accumulated roughly 34 million views across 13 years — a product of a much smaller YouTube and a pre-social-media launch era. GTA 6’s trailer beat that total in under a week, with a day-one YouTube haul of 27.85 million views and 1.4 million likes.

One caveat worth stating plainly: this is a family milestone, not an all-time record. GTA 6’s own Trailer 1 did 90.42 million YouTube views in 24 hours in December 2023 — a Guinness World Record — and Trailer 2 did 475 million cross-platform on day one in May 2025, per Rockstar via The Hollywood Reporter. Beating the 2011 trailer is the sentimental record, not the biggest one.

What does the cross-platform picture look like?

Beyond YouTube, GamesCreed reports the launch trailer pulled more than 120 million views and five million likes across platforms in its opening days — trending across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X — and pushed GTA 6 back to the top of the PlayStation Store’s trending games list, with fresh artwork and the trailer on the store page.

That PS Store detail matters because of the Sony marketing partnership behind it. Rockstar expanded its high-profile Sony deal with the trailer: the store page carries the new artwork and the trailer, and Rockstar is also buying YouTube advertising for it, with television spots expected as the November 19 launch approaches. Combined with the real-world Miami campaign, the trailer views are the digital front of a marketing blitz that is only just warming up.

Will the launch trailer break more records?

Almost certainly in the GTA-family sense, but the all-time benchmarks are higher: Trailer 1’s 90.42 million views in 24 hours is a Guinness record, and Trailer 2’s 475 million cross-platform day one is the franchise’s biggest single-day number. The launch trailer’s real test is the final 30-day marketing run — TV spots, the November 12 pre-load, and launch week.

The trajectory supports it: 27.85 million on day one, 37.8 million by day four, and a steady climb since. With GTA 6’s release date locked for November 19 and review copies expected before the end of October, the trailer is functioning as the hype index it was designed to be. See our hub with every GTA 6 trailer in one place and our breakdown of the launch trailer song, Justice’s “Flower in a Hurricane”.

What this means

This milestone is less about a trailer and more about scale: GTA 6’s audience is arriving at a size no Rockstar launch has ever commanded. When a four-day video outruns a 13-year one, it tells you the November 19 launch is pulling in people who never played GTA 5 at launch — the game is crossing into mainstream-event territory.

For Rockstar, the numbers validate the marketing cadence: launch trailer on October 15, TV spots to come, pre-load on November 12, launch on November 19. The trailer isn’t competing with 2011 anymore — it’s competing with Trailer 1’s Guinness record, and with 30 days of Rockstar’s heaviest-ever marketing, it may yet take a run at it.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• GamesCreed — GTA 6 Gets Worldwide Age Ratings Ahead of November 2026 Launch (Oct 18)
• Public24News — GTA 6 Trailer Surpasses GTA 5 Views Ahead of November Launch (Oct 19)
• Game Base on Facebook — launch trailer vs GTA V trailer comparison (Oct 18)
• RTXrush on Facebook — trailer view-count infographic (Oct 18)
• TheGTA6Gaming — GTA 6 Launch Trailer View Counts, day one (Oct 17)
• Rockstar Games on YouTube — Grand Theft Auto VI Launch Trailer (official description)

Every figure above was checked against the primary sources named: the two YouTube view counts were compared via the dated screenshot published by Game Base on October 18, 2026; the 120M-plus cross-platform figure and the PS Store trending rank come from GamesCreed’s October 18 report; the within-48-hours claim is attributed to public24news (October 19); and the trailer’s PS5-capture card is confirmed in Rockstar’s official YouTube description, fetched October 20. The Rockstar Newswire was checked on October 20 — no new GTA 6 post since September 24.