Grand Theft Auto (GTA) has rarely been far from the headlines over the past year. The highly anticipated GTA VI launch was delayed, leaked gameplay circulated online and Rockstar released an extended look at the game with streaming giant Netflix.
But how did these headline-making moments impact buzz levels around the franchise?
YouGov BrandIndex data suggests some generated much more movement in GTA’s Buzz score than others.
Which GTA VI news events actually moved consumer Buzz?
The clearest negative movement followed Rockstar’s November 6, 2025 announcement that GTA VI would be delayed from May 26 to November 19, 2026.
GTA’s Buzz score, a net measure of whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about the franchise in the past two weeks. stood at 21.1 on the day of the announcement. It fell to 17.3 by November 20 and reached 9.0 on December 5 — a decline of roughly 12 points in a month.
Rockstar revealed ‘GTA Online: A Safehouse in the Hills’ on December 5, bringing GTA V protagonist Michael De Santa back to the franchise. Buzz stood at 9.0 that day and 9.2 when the update launched on December 10, showing limited immediate lift.
GTA VI pre-orders coincided with the strongest positive Buzz run
The strongest positive run came alongside GTA VI pre-order announcements. Buzz stood at 17.9 when Rockstar announced pre-orders on June 18. It climbed to 22.0 when they opened on June 25 and reached 25.2 by July 7 — a gain of more than seven points.
Anticipation around GTA VI’s Extended Look also coincided with high scores. Buzz rose from 24.2 on August 5 to 26.8 on August 7, a day after Rockstar announced the August 27 showcase. That was the highest score recorded over the period analyzed.
Some of the most controversial GTA stories that followed had relatively little impact. Buzz had climbed down to 21.7 by the time leaked GTA VI gameplay began circulating on August 18 and ticked up to 23.7 by August 25. A YouGov Surveys poll conducted in the aftermath of the leaks revealed that less than a fifth of U.S. gamers had personally seen leaked content as of August 28th.
The Extended Look, which premiered on Netflix and subsequently on other platforms, didn’t appear to trigger much immediate movement. But Buzz has trended upwards since then.
Zooming out from the individual news cycles, GTA’s Buzz has generally been ticking upward over the past year, rising from 11.8 at the start of the observation period to 28 on September 28. The YouGov Surveys poll cited earlier provides an insight into why that might be – among Americans with an interest in gaming, 74% say they have heard at least a little about GTA VI, including 35% who have heard a lot. Just 11% say they have heard nothing at all.
For a broader look at how consumers perceive the franchise, see how GTA compares with the wider video game franchise universe across key BrandIndex metrics.
Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. GTA’s Buzz score is based on the following questions: Over the past two weeks, which of the following brands have you heard something positive about (whether in the news, through advertising, or talking to friends and family)? / Now which of the following have you heard something negative about over the past two weeks? Buzz is reported as a net score. Overall data is weighted using a propensity scoring methodology with targets from the American Community Survey (ACS) to ensure representation by age, gender, race, education, and region. The analysis is based on U.S. gamers – defined as those who play video games on PC/Console for at least an hour each week. Scores are based on a 6-week moving average with a daily sample size of 585. Trended Buzz data covers the period from September 7, 2025 to September 6, 2026.
