BambooHR finds a 13% rise in US PTO requests for GTA 6 launch day
Quick summary
BambooHR says PTO requests for 19 November among more than 3.4 million active US employees are nearly 13% above comparable Thursdays in 2024 and 2025. A separate survey found 18% of 1,530 full-time US workers plan to take launch day off, but the data does not prove GTA VI caused every request.
What the platform data shows
BambooHR pulled aggregated, anonymized records on 19 October. Requests for Thursday, 19 November were nearly 13% higher than for the third Thursday of November in the two previous years. Friday was almost 11% higher, while the following Saturday and Sunday were each nearly 9% higher.
The company also recorded a general 2% to 4% increase in PTO requests during 2026. That makes the launch-week signal unusual, but not a clean measure of how many people are taking leave specifically for the game.
A separate worker survey
Method Research prepared an online survey distributed by RepData to 1,530 full-time US workers from 9 to 20 October. Eighteen percent said they planned to take 19 November off; the shares were 32% for Gen Z and 27% for Millennials.
Among respondents intending to take time off for an upcoming video-game release, 50% said they planned to call in sick instead of scheduling PTO. That percentage does not describe the entire US workforce.