Key Notes
- Advance leave requests for GTA VI launch day are about 20% above usual levels in a UKG sample of frontline employers.
- A Zety survey found that 11% of respondents plan to take leave or adjust their hours for the release.
- British agency Raptor PR gave its nine-person team extra annual leave and bought everyone a copy of the game.
Grand Theft Auto VI is already making its way onto work calendars. Advance leave requests for the game’s November 19 launch are running about 20% above normal levels in a UKG sample of American frontline employers, adding a staffing challenge just ahead of Thanksgiving.
At one small British agency, the boss has decided to join in. Raptor PR gave its nine-person team an extra day of annual leave and bought everyone a copy of the game, Business Insider reported. An employee had booked the launch date off months earlier.
Other workers are still weighing vacation days, shift changes and sick calls. A Zety survey found that 11% of respondents planned to take leave or adjust their hours for the release. Those plans point to a busy day for managers handling requests, rather than evidence that one in ten Americans will definitely miss work.
The Launch Is Showing Up in Leave Requests
UKG’s analysis, reviewed on October 26, covers employee self-service requests at organizations representing roughly 2 million US frontline workers. The comparison is with typical request levels for equivalent pre-Thanksgiving weeks. Requests for Friday, November 20 were about 9% higher.
The figures do not include late submissions, unexpected sick calls or no-shows. UKG also cautions that its records cannot establish that GTA VI alone caused the increase.
BambooHR found a similar pattern in a different population. Its platform data, covering more than 3.4 million active US employees across 2024–2026, showed a launch-day request rate nearly 13% above comparable third Thursdays in November. Requests for the following Friday were almost 11% higher.
That increase exceeded the broader rise in leave requests on BambooHR’s platform this year, which was about 2%–4%. Both providers are seeing unusual demand for the date, although neither is counting the eventual number of employees absent nationwide.
Some Workers Are Planning Sick Calls
Zety’s survey of 1,040 US workers, conducted through Pollfish on October 6, provides the one-in-ten figure. Its question combined taking time off with adjusting a work schedule. A worker swapping hours could still complete a full working week.
Younger respondents were more likely to make plans around the release: 22% of Gen Z workers and 16% of millennials said they would take leave or change their schedules. Across major sporting and entertainment events more broadly, 15% were considering calling out sick. That last result was not specific to GTA VI.
BambooHR’s separate survey of 1,530 full-time US employees found that 18% of salaried workers intended to take launch day off. Among respondents planning time away for an upcoming video-game release, half expected to call in sick instead of arranging paid time off in advance.
These are accounts of what respondents intend to do. For an employer trying to fill a shift, the more consequential difference is whether the absence is agreed weeks ahead or reported that morning.
A Vacation Day Has Different Costs for Each Side
The game turns a familiar workplace benefit into a practical budgeting question. For an employee using an approved paid vacation day, the immediate cost may be a smaller leave balance. Taking unpaid time away can instead reduce that week’s earnings. Neither choice should be confused with an unexpected absence or with an employer granting additional paid leave.
For a business, the bill depends on how the work is covered. An understaffed shift can mean overtime for colleagues, delayed service or work carried into another day. Advance notice gives a manager more room to arrange cover than a last-minute call does.
It does not follow that every hour spent playing is an hour permanently lost to the economy. Our earlier examination of the widely circulated $1 billion launch-day productivity claim found no published calculation supporting that total. The new request data offers a firmer measure of interest in taking leave, without supplying a national dollar cost.
One Agency Turns the Launch Into a Benefit
Raptor PR’s approach avoids that scheduling uncertainty for its own team. The UK agency works with gaming technology companies. Its media relations manager, James Killick, had already requested November 19 off; CEO Rana Rahman subsequently offered the additional leave and copies of GTA VI to everyone.
The perk gives employees something beyond permission to spend an existing vacation day. The company is paying for both the extra time and the game, making the launch an employer-funded benefit.
For the nine-person agency, November 19 is already accounted for. Elsewhere, the requests are still coming in and the work of deciding who covers them has begun.
