Rockstar Games' initial gameplay presentation for Grand Theft Auto 6 achieved a peak viewership of 3,970,738 concurrent viewers across major livestreaming platforms. This figure establishes the event as the most-watched gaming stream of 2026 to date, according to data compiled by Streams Charts.
Over 9,000 individual streamers broadcast the reveal, accumulating more than 5.2 million hours of watch time. The GTA 6 presentation surpassed other significant streaming events of the year, including the Summer Game Fest 2026 broadcast, which drew 3.81 million peak viewers, and major PlayStation and Nintendo Direct showcases from June.
Twitch hosted the largest portion of the audience, accounting for approximately 44 percent of the total hours watched. YouTube followed with 34.8 percent, while Kick captured 20.2 percent of the viewership.
Individually, Spanish streamer Juan Alberto "IlloJuan" García led the pack with a personal peak viewership of 233,520, setting a new record for his channel. Other top streamers included Rubius and IShowSpeed.
The reveal, which began at 8 p.m. UK time, experienced technical difficulties on both Twitch and Netflix, with some users reporting login issues for extended periods. Despite these disruptions, online discussion remained high, with Streams Charts recording over 100,000 chat messages related to the game during the three-hour analysis window.
Analysis of the chat messages indicated that while the majority (65-72 percent) were neutral in tone, positive sentiment comprised 11-15 percent, and negative sentiment accounted for 17-20 percent. A significant portion of the negative feedback was directed at the technical outages rather than the game's content itself. Approximately 20 percent of messages drew comparisons to Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, often unfavorably.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is scheduled for release on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The gameplay reveal also offered details on several new features, including an updated Wanted system, a revised carjacking mechanic, a new romance system, an expansive game world, and a variety of in-game activities.