Workers are already clearing their calendars for Thursday, November 19, and the reason has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. Grand Theft Auto VI launches that day, and vacation requests for the date are running well above what employers usually see in mid-November.
The spike comes from data that human resources platform BambooHR shared with Money, which found time-off requests for November 19 running 9% to 17% above the typical third Thursday of November. The figures cover requests already filed, meaning the wave was building weeks before Rockstar Games' launch day arrives.
The data cannot prove every request is about the game, and BambooHR itself has urged some caution. A spokesperson for the company said the striking trend could also reflect a broader cultural shift toward employees using their time off more freely.
The anecdotes, though, point straight at Leonida. One worker who asked for November 19 and 20 off found his manager assumed the request was for GTA 6, approved it, and then booked the same days off for himself.
Other fans are planning far more than a long weekend. "I know some people that are going to take weeks off," one player wrote, "and I'm one of them."
The Thursday timing only adds to the pull. A single day off on launch day turns into a four-day stretch with the weekend, giving players an uninterrupted first run through Leonida before the following Monday.
One California motorsports shop has gone further, deciding to close on November 19 after the volume of requests it received. In its notice, the company said "normal business operations may be impacted due to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI," and called the launch an "unprecedented cultural event."
The requests are stacking up alongside the pre-orders. More than 5.2 million copies of GTA 6 have already been pre-ordered, over a decade after Grand Theft Auto V first launched in 2013.
That gap helps explain the scale of the planning. Grand Theft Auto V arrived in 2013, and an entire generation of players has been waiting for the follow-up ever since, through years of rumors, leaks and delays.
Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game returns the series to Vice City, following Lucia and Jason across the state of Leonida.
Whether every one of those requests is really about the game is something only the workers filing them know. What the numbers already show is that November 19 is being treated less like an ordinary Thursday and more like a release-day holiday.
