GTA 6 Trailer 1 Leak
- Date
- December 4, 2023
- Source
- Unidentified; the file carried a "BUY $BTC" overlay
- Channel
- Social video reuploads
- Build
- Finished marketing asset
- Standing
- Verified
Less than sixteen hours before its scheduled premiere, a lower-quality copy of Trailer 1 appeared online with "BUY $BTC" burned across the picture. Rockstar responded by moving the premiere forward to 6:00 PM EST the same day.
What actually leaked
- The complete first trailer, at reduced quality, with a large crypto-promotion watermark
- The Vice City setting, the paired leads, and the Tom Petty needle-drop — all of it hours before Rockstar intended
Standing: Verified
Confirmed by Rockstar's own reaction: the company pulled its premiere forward the same day rather than let the watermarked copy stand as the first impression.
What happened next
Rockstar staff posted publicly about how much the leak stung. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick called it disappointing in February 2024 but said he did not think it hurt the game. Insider Gaming later reported that YouTube ran an internal investigation into employee access to backend data soon after the leak.
Systems traced to this leak
- Modern-day Vice CityWorld · Verified
- Two playable leadsStory · Verified