GTA VI Release Date History: Every Window and Delay

Last checked: Oct 11 2026. This page is kept live. If Rockstar or Take-Two changes the date, this page changes the same day.

The short answer: Grand Theft Auto VI has had one window, one narrowed window, and three dates. It was first "2025", then "Fall of calendar 2025", then May 26 2026, and now Thursday, November 19, 2026. That makes two official delays, and there have been none since Nov 6 2025. Every other "delay" you have read about was a rumor.

At a glance

For what the game is, see GTA VI. For the trailers that carried some of these dates, see GTA VI trailers.

What is counted, and how

We count only two kinds of source:

1. Rockstar Newswire posts. This is Rockstar's own announcement channel.
2. Take-Two press releases filed with the SEC. Every quarterly earnings release includes a lineup table that names each upcoming game, its platforms and its date. We read every release from Feb 2024 to Aug 2026 on sec.gov.

A "window" is a period, such as "2025" or "Fall of calendar 2025". A "date" is a day. A "delay" is a public change that moves the game later. Narrowing a window from "2025" to "Fall 2025" is not a delay, because fall 2025 sits inside 2025. We count it separately.

What we left out:

• Rumored dates from forums and image boards. These go in the rumor table at the bottom.
• Analyst guesses about slips.
• The Sep 2022 network intrusion. Rockstar said early footage was taken (FACTS.md F59). No date had been announced then, so nothing was delayed.

How the gaps are measured. Days are counted with a calendar calculator, start date excluded, end date included. A window has no single day, so for "Fall of calendar 2025" we use its last possible day, Dec 31 2025. That gives the smallest possible slip. The real slip was larger.

The full record, oldest first

Row 15 is the only row we did not read in a primary document. It comes from press coverage of the meeting, so treat it as reported.

The gaps, in days

This is the table we built for this page. It answers two practical questions: how much later each delay pushed the game, and how much notice Rockstar gave.

The arithmetic, step by step:

• Dec 31 2025 to May 26 2026: January 31, February 28, March 31, April 30, then 26 days of May. Total 146.
• May 26 2026 to Nov 19 2026: 5 days left in May, then June 30, July 31, August 31, September 30, October 31, and 19 days of November. Total 177.
• 146 plus 177 is 323.
• Nov 6 2025 to May 26 2026: 24 days left in November, then December 31, January 31, February 28, March 31, April 30, and 26 days of May. Total 201.
• Delay 1 to delay 2: May 2 2025 to Nov 6 2025 is 188 days.

What the record tells you

Each delay came with long notice. Delay 1 was announced in early May, months before the fall 2025 window opened. Delay 2 came 201 days before the May 2026 date. Neither delay landed in the final weeks before a launch. As of Oct 11 2026, launch was 39 days away, and Take-Two had restated the date in three earnings releases since the last change (Feb 3, May 21 and Aug 7 2026).

Take-Two's lineup table is the tell. Every quarterly release carries a table of upcoming games and their dates. When Rockstar moved the game, the table changed in the same news cycle: the May 2 2025 8-K came out the same day as the Newswire post, and the Nov 6 2025 earnings release carried the new date in its headline. The table was last updated on Aug 7 2026 and still reads "November 19, 2026". The next earnings release is likely in early November. That is a prediction based on last year's Nov 6 timing, not an announced date.

The game moved to a Thursday. Nov 19 2026 is a Thursday. The earlier date, May 26 2026, was a Tuesday. Pre-load opens one week earlier, on Thursday Nov 12 at local midnight (see pre-load and the physical copy).

The fiscal year shifted once. Take-Two's fiscal year ends Mar 31. Fall 2025 sat in fiscal 2026. Both May 26 2026 and Nov 19 2026 sit in fiscal 2027, and Take-Two's May 2 2025 statement said so. The FY27 net bookings outlook of $8.0 to $8.2 billion is tied to the Nov 19 launch (Take-Two Q1 FY27 release).

Rumored delays that did not happen

Trivia

• Trailer 1 arrived on Dec 4 2023, the same day Take-Two's release went out. It was planned for Dec 5 and moved up after a leak (FACTS.md F26).
• Take-Two's Feb 2024 lineup table wrote the window as "Calendar 2025". The word matters: Take-Two's fiscal 2025 ended on Mar 31 2025, so "fiscal 2025" would have meant something else.
• Rockstar apologised to players in the Nov 6 2025 post and said the extra time was for polish (FACTS.md F62).

Sources

• Take-Two, "Rockstar Games Announces Grand Theft Auto VI, Coming 2025", Dec 4 2023
• Take-Two Q3 FY24 earnings release, Feb 8 2024
• Take-Two Q4 FY24 earnings release, May 16 2024
• Take-Two Q1 FY25 earnings release, Aug 8 2024
• Take-Two Q2 FY25 earnings release, Nov 6 2024
• Take-Two Q3 FY25 earnings release, Feb 6 2025
• Rockstar Newswire, "Grand Theft Auto VI is Now Coming May 26, 2026", May 2 2025
• Take-Two press release, May 2 2025
• Take-Two Q4 FY25 earnings release, May 15 2025
• Take-Two Q1 FY26 earnings release, Aug 7 2025
• Take-Two investor presentation, September 2025
• Rockstar Newswire, "Grand Theft Auto VI is Now Set to Launch November 19, 2026", Nov 6 2025
• Take-Two Q2 FY26 earnings release, Nov 6 2025
• Take-Two Q3 FY26 earnings release, Feb 3 2026
• Take-Two Q4 FY26 earnings release, May 21 2026
• Take-Two Q1 FY27 earnings release, Aug 7 2026
• GamesRadar, GTA 6 Trailer 1
• NME, Zelnick reaffirms the November date, May 22 2026