Talkwalker Market Pulse - How GTA6 raced to a 2023 record

Your weekly consumer intelligence briefing - December 13, 2023

Rockstar Games recently marked its 25th anniversary, generating a wave of excitement among its devoted fanbase. Building on this anticipation, they made a pre-announcement in early November, guaranteeing the release of the highly anticipated 1st trailer of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA6) in December.

The pre-announcement post rapidly emerged as the most engaging of 2023, with an impressive 2.6 million engagements. As a result, it sparked a surge of 1 million mentions for GTA6.

Since its release last week, the trailer has already received 140 million views and generated an additional 2.5 million mentions. This helped it set a new record for the highest number of YouTube views within 24 hours (excluding music videos).

Despite the expected presence of some negative feedback amidst the vast number of mentions, the launch has been successful so far. On the day of the initial announcement, the net sentiment rose to 83.1%, while even on the day the trailer was unveiled, there was still a positive net sentiment of 25.1%.

The remarkable statistics and enthusiastic reception highlight the undeniable appeal and anticipation surrounding this trailer.

Using a quick AI summary, we can see what fans loved about the trailer, highlighting Rocksteady's impeccable attention to detail. Tom Petty's "Love Is A Long Road" captivated, as an exceptionally fitting choice for the soundtrack.

It has been over a decade since the release of its predecessor, GTA5, and the latest installment is designed with cutting-edge next-gen technology in mind.

However, there is one point of upset for fans - the planned release date. In the trailer, it was revealed that the game will launch in 2025, which seems too distant for many. There were 750.3k mentions of 2025 in conjunction with discussions about the game.

Given the immense attention surrounding the game, numerous personalities and brands were eager to join the conversation. This level of interest serves as a testament to the game's widespread appeal and the excitement it has generated.

The biggest influencers, by audience size, include Elon Musk and the official X channel, alongside Khaby Lame, the most followed user on TikTok. While brands like Playstation and Xbox (future platforms for the game) have also tweeted their support.

Rockstar now faces the challenge of sustaining this excitement for the next year and beyond, with the ultimate goal of converting this initial buzz into sales.

It’s now even easier to gather insights like these with Talkwalker’s Next Generation Social Listening . Want to forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague? Anyone can sign up for this weekly newsletter , including on LinkedIn .

Photo by Jo?o Ferr?o on Unsplash