Netflix's Grand Theft Auto' Peek Draws Traffic For Influencers

Some video-game celebrities attracted more than one million viewers to their livestreamed reactions to the preview on Twitch - which subsequently suffered from an outage due to so much traffic. While the trailer won't debut on YouTube until 9 p.m. in New York, videos of users commentating on it have garnered millions of thousands of views there. On X, more than a half-dozen posts every second talked about the event.

Darren Jason Watkins, a video game influencer known as IShowSpeed, immediately drew more than 1.7 million views to a YouTube video of his reaction to the event, which was frequently interrupted by technical difficulties on Netflix.

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"The gameplay is, like, immaculate," he said to his live viewers. "Low-key, I'm getting way too excited, bro."

In a bid for gamer-subscribers, Netflix hosted the 26-minute preview, beginning with a high-octane gunfight at an illegal drug facility in Vice City, a fictionalized version of Miami. The streaming company has been working to break into video games for more than five years, through a combination of video-game offerings and adaptations on the platform.

"The anticipation and fandom around Grand Theft Auto VI is unprecedented," Brandon Riegg, vice president of nonfiction series at Netflix, said in a statement. "It's a reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience."

The clip, which will air exclusively on Netflix for six hours, was captured entirely from in-game footage on a PlayStation 5 console.

Slated for release on Nov. 19, Grand Theft Auto VI could bring in as much as $5.2 billion for Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. in its first week, according to data from market research firm NewZoo. Between heists and car chases, the Bonnie-and-Clyde style protagonists enjoyed moments of warm respite and dark humor.

Enthusiasm for the trailer didn't appear to be dampened after the game's developer, Rockstar Games, confirmed it suffered a hack last week that leaked footage online. "We know we need to exceed your expectations, and we are determined to deliver at the level you expect and deserve," Rockstar wrote in a note to fans posted to X.

Take-Two shares fell slightly after the Netflix debut, though they soon pared those declines and ended the day little changed.

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"Our first take upon viewing the trailer is that Rockstar delivered against players' stratospheric expectations, and that excitement into the November release should only continue to build," said Andrew Marok, an analyst at Raymond James.