On this page
Trailer 1 at a glance
- Released
- December 4, 2023, about 6 PM ET, instead of the planned December 5 at 9 AM ET official
- Length
- 1 minute 31 seconds
- Song
- Tom Petty, "Love Is a Long Road" (1989) official
- First 24 hours
- More than 93 million YouTube views, a non-music record, per Variety reported
- YouTube views now
- About 296 million on September 23, 2026 (YouTube counter)
- Date card
- "Coming 2025", later moved twice to November 19, 2026
- Characters
- Lucia (named in dialogue), Jason (unnamed until Trailer 2), Stefanie
How it arrived: a leak and an early release
Rockstar said in November 2023 that the first trailer would arrive in early December, then set it for Tuesday, December 5 at 9 AM Eastern. On the evening of December 4 a low-quality copy started spreading on X. Rockstar posted the official upload to YouTube at about 6 PM Eastern that night, roughly 15 hours early, and tweeted: "Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube." official
The leak did not dent the launch. Variety reported more than 93 million YouTube views in the first 24 hours, the most ever for a non-music video, beating the 59.4 million set by a MrBeast upload that August. It passed 120 million within 72 hours. reported The same day, Rockstar's Newswire post named the setting in text: the game "heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond." For the full leak history, see the GTA 6 leak timeline.
Scene by scene
Timestamps are checked against Rockstar's YouTube upload and are accurate to about a second. Several shots last under a second, so we group them.
| Time | What you see | What it told us |
|---|---|---|
| 0:03 | Sunset over traffic on a highway causeway, then razor wire on a prison fence. | The tone: sunshine and confinement, in the first five seconds. |
| 0:07 | Lucia in an orange jumpsuit, then across a desk from a counselor. "Lucia, do you know why you're here?" "Bad luck, I guess." | The first protagonist starts the story in prison. The office belongs to the Leonida Department of Corrections, and the counselor's desk nameplate gives her first name, Stefanie. |
| 0:11 | A speedboat and a jet ski across turquoise water, then a sweep over a packed beach and the skyline under "Rockstar Games Presents." | Vice City is a modern, crowded take on Miami, not the 1986 city from the 2002 game. |
| 0:19 | An airboat in golden wetlands, then flamingos lifting off a marsh. | The map goes well past the city. Trailer 2's site relaunch named this region Grassrivers. |
| 0:22 | Beachgoers, then a speedboat racing past a container ship at the port. | Water traffic everywhere; boats matter in Leonida. |
| 0:25 | At night, a woman dances out of a convertible on the highway. Overhead signs point to Stockyard, Downtown and the VCI airport. | The first district names on screen. |
| 0:28 | Lowriders on a sunny street, a strip club, two men celebrating on a sidewalk. | The city's neighborhoods and nightlife. |
| 0:32 | A night aerial over islands and the bay, then a neon strip of art deco hotels lined with supercars and a packed club. | Ocean Drive energy, rebuilt for today. |
| 0:36 | A long bridge between keys with a seaplane overhead, then a rooftop pool party. | The island chain later named the Leonida Keys. |
| 0:40 | A giant "VICE" sign against the sunset. | The city's name, in steel letters. |
| 0:42 | Vertical clips with usernames and captions: a yacht party, a man hauling an alligator out of a pool, a woman twerking on a car roof, a street takeover, a livestreamed dancer. | An in-game social feed full of "Florida Man" moments. Rockstar has not named the app, and it is not Snapmatic as far as anything official says. |
| 0:48 | Security-camera footage of an alligator wandering into a convenience store, then police bodycam footage of a raid. | Leonida as seen through phones and security cameras. |
| 0:50 | More feed clips: a gas station, a man climbing out of a car window, a mud party at the Thrillbilly Mud Club, a woman in a nightgown guarding her street ("Neighborhood watch don't play around in Hamlet"). | Rural and small-town Leonida, and more place names. |
| 1:01 | A man and Lucia, both in bandanas, in the cab of a pickup under an "It cures emotions!" billboard. | The male lead. Trailer 2 named him Jason Duval. |
| 1:04 | Weazel News bulletins ("No (over) turning zone!", "Dirt-bike dirt-bags"), a Spanish-language news story under a "Mega" logo, dirt bikes and quads pulling wheelies. | TV news covers the chaos in English and Spanish. |
| 1:09 | Lucia and Jason, masked, walk the aisles of Uncle Jack's Liquor. | They are already robbing places together. |
| 1:11 | A red muscle car does a burnout at a dusty crossroads. | Muscle cars and dust: the rural side of Leonida. |
| 1:13 | A motel room: Lucia leans over Jason on the bed. "Trust?" "Trust." | They are a couple. |
| 1:17 | The pair burst through the store's door with pistols raised. | The hold-up the aisle shot set up. |
| 1:19 | The VI logo builds, then "Coming 2025" and the Rockstar logo. | The 2025 window, which slipped twice. |
The spoken lines
Trailer 1 has very little talking, which is part of why it lands. The main lines, in order:
- Stefanie: "Lucia, do you know why you're here?"
- Lucia: "Bad luck, I guess."
- Lucia (voice-over): "The only way we're gonna get through this is by sticking together. Being a team."
- Lucia and Jason, in the motel: "Trust?" "Trust."
Older versions of this page quoted a "be true to ourselves" line. No such line is in the trailer.
What the early guesses got right
- Lucia is a lead, not a sidekick. Trailer 2 and the official site made her one of two protagonists alongside Jason.
- The couple is the story. Rockstar's Trailer 2 copy says Jason and Lucia are "forced to rely on each other more than ever." See the GTA 6 story page.
- The social feed is real. The phone's social app and viral videos featured in the Extended Look.
- The map is more than Vice City. Rockstar's site now names six regions, and Rockstar staff told The New York Times and TGG the map is about three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2's. reported See the Leonida map.
One thing did not hold: the date. "Coming 2025" became May 26, 2026, then November 19, 2026.
Small details worth knowing
- The counselor is Stefanie. Her desk nameplate shows only her first name and a last initial, and she has no official bio. Full surnames on fan sites come from leaked material, so we do not use one.
- "Leonida" appeared twice on launch day: on the corrections office in the trailer and in the Newswire text that went up with it.
- The "Mega" logo on the Spanish-language news story comes back in a big way: the Extended Look builds a whole sequence around the Megamundo media company. That link is our reading, not Rockstar's.
- Tom Petty's song picked up a large streaming bump the week the trailer landed, per NME. The GTA 6 song list tracks every licensed track heard so far.
More hidden signs and references are collected on the GTA 6 easter eggs page.
Read next
Trailer 2 gave every person in this video a name and a job. Start with the Trailer 2 breakdown, then the Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval pages. For the places, the Vice City guide matches the skyline shots to their Miami counterparts, and every GTA 6 trailer is listed in order on the hub.
Seen the trailers? It is out November 19
Amazon sells the boxed Standard Edition: a download code in the box, no disc. Amazon delivers from November 12, the day pre-load opens, and standard delivery can arrive later, so check the date at checkout. The game unlocks November 19.
PS5GTA VI · PS5Standard Edition: a download code in the box, no disc, for US and Canadian PlayStation accounts. Amazon delivers from November 12, with release-day delivery for Prime members; it unlocks November 19.Pre-order on AmazonXbox Series X|SGTA VI · XboxStandard Edition: a download code in the box, no disc. Amazon delivers from November 12, with release-day delivery for Prime members; it unlocks November 19.Pre-order on AmazonPS5GTA VI DualSenseSony's official Grand Theft Auto VI Limited Edition controller in white, out November 19.Pre-order on AmazonAmazon's Pre-order Price Guarantee: "the price we charge when we ship it to you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.com between the time you placed your order and the end of the day of the release date." Amazon's help page adds that it "does not apply to lower prices offered through any program that requires a customer to join the program to receive the lower price." Amazon's release date for the GTA VI boxes is November 12.
Amazon's listing offers Prime members release-day delivery on November 12. New members can start a 30-day free trial (Amazon, checked September 28); a trial started before mid-October runs out before November 12, so start it later or keep the membership. Try Prime on AmazonPaid link: Amazon pays GTA6.how a fee if you sign up. As an Amazon Associate, GTA6.how earns from qualifying purchases.
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Frequently asked questions
When did GTA 6 Trailer 1 come out?
December 4, 2023, at about 6 PM Eastern. Rockstar had scheduled it for 9 AM Eastern on December 5, but a leaked copy spread on X that evening, so Rockstar posted the real trailer about 15 hours early.
What song is in GTA 6 Trailer 1?
Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road," from his 1989 album Full Moon Fever. It is the only song in the trailer.
How many views did GTA 6 Trailer 1 get?
More than 93 million YouTube views in 24 hours, per Variety, a record for a non-music video that beat MrBeast's 59.4 million. It passed 120 million within 72 hours. YouTube's counter showed about 296 million on September 23, 2026.
What does Lucia say in Trailer 1?
The counselor asks "Lucia, do you know why you're here?" and Lucia answers "Bad luck, I guess." Later she says the only way they will get through this is by sticking together and being a team, and the trailer closes on a "Trust?" / "Trust." exchange with Jason.
Did Trailer 1 say GTA 6 was coming in 2025?
Yes. It ended on a "Coming 2025" card. Rockstar moved the game to May 26, 2026 in May 2025 and then to November 19, 2026 in November 2025.
What changed on this page
- Corrected the Extended Look's length in the related links to 26 minutes (the official upload runs 26:48).
- The trailer now plays right on this page in YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, with no extra click to load it.
- Rebuilt the scene table with timestamps checked against the official video, corrected the closing lines, the counselor's name (Stefanie, first name and last initial on her nameplate) and how the early release happened, stopped crediting retailer copy about viral videos to Rockstar, and added the click-to-play video.