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GTA VI’s Release Is Spiking PTO Requests
Courtesy of Rockstar Games
A new survey found that a massive number of Americans are expected to take the day off on November 19 to play Grand Theft Auto VI when it launches.
The Big Picture: Taking a day off for, or directly after, a major cultural event isn’t new… but it’s never happened on this scale for the debut of a video game. But GTA VI is no ordinary video game — it’s the next installment of one of the best-selling franchises in the industry’s history, 13 years in the making. In fact, it has reportedly made $630 million in pre-orders alone. That’s a lot of people ready to play the game the moment it drops.
Behind The Gameplay: Do you have a case of the “GTA flu?”
A survey by GameSquare and Pollfish lists the symptoms.
If you’re among the 39% of full-time employed American adults who plan to take PTO to play the game, the 36% who plan to call in sick, or the 32% who plan to “work” from home that day.
If you’re among the workers planning to take an average of 3.9 days off to play the game. (That’s a lot of pizza deliveries.)
If you contributed to the 22% jump in PS5 sales last month in preparation for the game.
Those are some serious symptoms, especially considering that “78% of Americans don’t take all their vacation days each year, and 47% feel guilty about taking time off at all,” per Fast Company.
Last Request: With over 190 million Americans considering themselves gamers, OOO emails are about to be sent like never before in a month’s time. In fact, one Spanish economist estimates that GTA-related absences will cost the US $1 billion in lost productivity — and that’s a conservative estimate. No wonder some companies, like California-based Burger Motorsports, have issued a “temporary company-wide operational pause” after realizing just how many employees would be out.
Sometimes, you just have to accept the inevitable.
Next Level: November 19 could mark the single biggest productivity drop tied to a piece of entertainment in recent memory. Wild.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.