Nearly 1 in 5 salaried US workers plan to take the day off when Grand Theft Auto VI launches on Nov. 19, according to new survey and platform data from HR software company BambooHR.
In a report titled “Gamer’s Day Off: PTO Requests Spike for Grand Theft Auto VI Release”, published Oct. 22, BambooHR says 18% of the full-time salaried workers it surveyed plan to take launch day off. That share climbs to 32% among Gen Z respondents and 27% among Millennials.
What the PTO data shows
BambooHR also looked at time off requests across roughly 3.4 million active US employees on its platform. The company says:
- The PTO request rate for Thursday, Nov. 19, 2026, is nearly 13% higher than for comparable third Thursdays in 2024 and 2025.
- Friday, Nov. 20, is running about 11% above comparable third Fridays.
- Saturday and Sunday of that weekend are each about 9% higher.
BambooHR notes that time off requests are up about 2% to 4% across 2026 in general, so not all of the bump belongs to Rockstar’s open world. The launch days still show a bigger year over year jump than other 2026 dates, though the company does not claim GTA VI explains the whole increase.
Calling in sick instead
Plenty of players may skip the PTO form entirely. Among workers who intend to take time off for an upcoming video game release, 50% say they plan to call out sick rather than schedule it. Across all respondents, 38% say calling out sick is easier than planning PTO, and 51% admit they use sick time for things other than being sick.
The survey covered 1,530 US full-time salaried adults and was collected Oct. 9 to 20, 2026, by Method Research with RepData.
If you are one of the people clearing Nov. 19, you will want storage cleared too. As we reported, GTA 6 reportedly needs a 210GB download on PS5.
