GTA 6 pre-loads gave Virgin Media its busiest day on record, eight days before the game is even out. In a press release on 11 November, Virgin Media O2 said its UK broadband network set new highs for both peak traffic and total daily data on Tuesday 10 November. Peak traffic beat the previous record, set during Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid, by 3.8%. Total data for the day was 4% higher than the previous best, which was set only on 1 November by the launch of Fortnite’s Chapter 7 Mini Season.
The rush started as soon as downloads opened. Between midnight and 1am UK time on 10 November, which is also midnight to 1am UTC in winter, Virgin Media recorded a 51.6% rise in broadband traffic compared with the same hour a week earlier. By 9am, the total data downloaded was 73.3% higher than over the same period on Tuesday 3 November. At 23:05 UTC, the network passed its previous record for an entire day’s data, with almost an hour of Tuesday still to go. Virgin Media O2 did not say how many customers pre-loaded the game, or publish its peak traffic in terabits per second.
How big the GTA 6 download is, and how long it takes
Virgin Media puts the game at 190GB, slightly less than the 212GB of free space we reported in our GTA 6 pre-load guide. The company says customers on its fastest Gig2 broadband service can download it in under 15 minutes. Our own calculation, at full line speed with no overheads, gives just under 13 minutes on a 2Gbps connection. On a 100Mbps line, the same download would take more than four hours, so many players will want to start well before launch day.
| Connection speed | Time to download 190GB |
|---|---|
| 2Gbps | 12 min 40 sec |
| 1Gbps | 25 min 20 sec |
| 500Mbps | 50 min 40 sec |
| 100Mbps | 4 hr 13 min |
| 50Mbps | 8 hr 27 min |
Pre-loading was always likely to strain networks, given how many people have already bought the game. GTA 6 has become the most pre-ordered game on record, with an estimated 9.69 million pre-orders, according to Sensor Tower. Rockstar’s own pre-load announcement also confirmed that the game targets 30 frames per second on consoles, which has caused a backlash among players. That debate has done little to slow the downloads, judging by Virgin Media’s figures.
What UK players are planning for GTA 6 launch day
Virgin Media O2 also published polling from Strand Partners, a member of the British Polling Council, which surveyed 520 UK adults who expect to play the game on 30 October. Nearly half (46%) said they expect to download GTA 6 before release day, and 45% expect to spend at least £50 on gaming kit, not counting the game. More than three-quarters (78%) have changed, or plan to change, their schedules to find time to play. Almost a quarter (23%) expect to stay up later or sleep less, and 22% plan to keep a whole weekend free.
Work looks set to suffer too, with half of the working respondents who expect to play saying they plan to take time off, and a third expect to take at least two days. Some employers are already leaning into it, with Logitech giving every employee a day off to play games, while others will want to check the rules on taking leave for GTA 6. On average, the people surveyed expect to spend 17 hours in the game during its first week.
For many players, the preparation goes well beyond booking time off work. According to the polling, 81% have taken or plan to take steps before launch, including stocking up on snacks (28%), clearing console storage (21%) and checking broadband speeds (18%). One fan, a 31-year-old chef named in the release as Ciaran, said he had even paid to have his PS5 professionally cleaned. “We’ve been preparing our network for the demand that comes with a launch of this scale,” said Jeanie York, chief technology officer at Virgin Media O2.
Excitement is high across the board, with 61% of players saying they are more excited about GTA 6 than most other film, TV, music or game releases this year. More than half (53%) said it will be the highlight of their year. Grand Theft Auto VI launches on 19 November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, according to Rockstar Games.
