Thousands of UK employees have booked annual leave to play Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6), with BrightHR estimating that the requests represent £12.4 million in costs across November and December.
The absence-tracking provider says 83,000 days have been booked for GTA-related reasons, while leave booked for the game's 19 November launch is estimated to represent £3.14 million.
Grand Theft Auto V was released on 17 September 2013, leaving a 13-year gap between main-series releases. Some fans have planned annual leave around the next game's arrival.
GTA 6 Leave Requests Reach 83,000 Days
BrightHR analysed absence data covering more than 1.2 million employees across 70,000 UK businesses. It found that GTA was mentioned in 4.63 per cent of time-off requests for 19 November, the scheduled launch date.
The 83,000 days cover November and December. BrightHR's £12.4 million estimate is based on an assumed daily cost of £150, using the ONS median salary, and an extrapolation from its customer data to the wider UK workforce.
It is not confirmed lost revenue or an additional bill for every employer. It is a modelled estimate of booked leave, not lost sales or productivity.
BrightHR says its customers represent 3.37 per cent of the UK workforce and uses a total workforce estimate of 34.48 million people to calculate the wider impact. The launch-day estimate is £3.14 million.
🚨 NEW: The launch of GTA 6 is set to cost British businesses over £12m as 83,000 days off are booked for "GTA related reasons" pic.twitter.com/3RjXKchXbe
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) November 9, 2026
The calculation relies on those assumptions and should be understood as an estimate of paid absence across the UK workforce, rather than confirmed economic damage. It does not mean employers will lose an additional £12.4 million because employees choose to play GTA 6.
BrightHR's research also found that more than twice as many employees had booked 19 November off to play GTA than for a honeymoon. One particularly dedicated fan had reportedly saved enough annual leave to take a fortnight away from work.
Some requests were unusually direct, including 'GTA week on the sofa in my pants', 'GTA Release, I'll resign if this is denied' and 'GTA day. Game on, losers'. These individual examples illustrate the enthusiasm surrounding the launch, but do not establish a wider trend of employees threatening to quit if their leave is refused.
Employers Must Balance GTA 6 Leave and Cover
BrightHR chief executive Alan Price said the launch could cost businesses more than £12 million over a short period, but argued that gaming should be treated as a legitimate reason for taking annual leave.
'Some bosses might roll their eyes at taking time off work to game, but it is every bit as valid as booking annual leave to attend a football match, concert or hen do,' Price said, adding that 'fans have waited 13 years for this'.
The practical issue for employers is staffing. Staff can use approved annual leave for personal activities, but businesses may still need to manage competing requests and ensure enough people are available to keep operations running.
The BrightHR findings also indicate that the game is appearing in leave requests from younger workers. It accounted for 4 per cent of the launch-day reasons given by millennials and ranked among the top 10 reasons Gen Z employees requested time off.
The figures do not establish staffing shortages or show that every request was approved. They are a snapshot of demand, not proof of widespread disruption.
For employers, the immediate task is arranging cover around 19 November. For fans, the appeal is simpler: after 13 years between releases, a day of approved leave may be worth setting aside.
