GTA 6 Launch: US Faces $1 Billion Loss

GTA 6 has been talking nothing but profit ever since the day GTA V was launched. However, it may be held responsible for a billion dollar loss soon. There is a difference between calling in sick and calling in Vice City, and come November 19, a lot of offices are about to learn it the hard way. Grand Theft Auto VI finally drops that Thursday, and instead of quietly logging on after work, an estimated 1.5 million employees are reportedly planning to just not show up at all.

Economics professor Jose Garcia Montalvo crunched the numbers for The Hill, and the damage isn’t small change; it’s a dent that could cost the US economy close to $1 billion in a single day of missing productivity.

How Will GTA 6 CAuse A $1 Bn Loss?

The maths is simpler than it sounds. Montalvo based his estimate on that same 1.5 million figure, paired with the fact that the average American worker produces roughly $70,000 in output a year. 

Multiply a mass no-show by that daily rate, and the losses stack up fast. Tech companies and younger workforces are expected to feel it hardest. 

A Wall Street Journal report from August 2026 found employees have been quietly hoarding paid leave specifically for launch day, with some companies reportedly building the date straight into year-end planning.

This Isn’t GTA's First Rodeo With Sick Leaves

History backs this up rather than making it sound dramatic. When GTA V dropped in 2013, nearly 6% of workers aged 18 to 35 in cities like New York and Los Angeles skipped work to play it, and an IGN survey of its own readers found 46% had already taken the day off, with another 20% planning to call in sick that same morning.

Entertainment has pulled this trick before too: Avengers: Endgame’s 2019 opening reportedly cost the US economy close to $3 million. GTA 6, going by pre-orders alone, already looks set to beat them all in causing damage to the US economy.