Grand Theft Auto VI Pushed Back, Again, To Late 2026 As Take-Two Falls

Talk about burying the lead. In Take-Two Interactive’s Q2 earnings announcement today, the company dwelled on huge uptake for the latest version of its basketball franchise, NBA 2K26, and the warm reception for a glitchy Borderlands 4, while mentioning far down that, oh by the way. that the publisher’s biggest franchise now won’t be out for another year.

It’s the latest in a seemingly endless parade of delays for Grand Theft Auto VI, expected by many industry observers to be the biggest entertainment release of all time, whenever it may arrive.

“(Take-Two development studio) Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto VI will now be released on November 19, 2026, giving the team some additional time to finish the game with the high level of polish players expect and deserve,” the company said in its official release. “Rockstar has our full support of course, and we are confident they will deliver an unrivaled blockbuster entertainment experience.”

It’s been a dozen years since GTA5, as it’s known, first debuted on the long-ago PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, migrating to those consoles’ successors the following year, PCs in 2015, and the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S a full three years ago. Along the way, the game has sold a staggering 220 million units worldwide, the company’s said.

Helping keep GTA V vital is the company’s Grand Theft Auto Online, a persistent massively multiplayer online world. GTA Online is still releasing “holiday-themed jobs and rewards, as well as new vehicles, community events and outfits,” Take-Two said, growing paying membership more than 20% year over year.

The latest delay pushes a GTA6 debut from the last promised arrival, in spring of next year, to the heart of the 2026 holiday season.

That puts it back in the middle of the game industry’s biggest sales quarter each year. It also sets up a head-to-head competition for gamer affections with Microsoft-owned Activision’s best-selling Call of Duty annual release next year.

This year’s release, COD Black Ops 7, debuts next week, while Electronic Arts has successfully revived its Battlefield franchise, already selling at least 10 million copies of Battlefield 6 since its October 10 debut.

EA, which has agreed to a $55 billion acquisition by a consortium led by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, has said it plans to keep spinning out new Battlefield content from four development studios to create a durable ongoing platform, meaning Battlefield 6 likely will still be in the market when GTA6 eventually rolls out.

At least the cupboard isn’t bare at Take-Two these days while GTA6 takes another couple of quarters getting buffed up in the Rockstar garage.

Net bookings, a key industry metric, hit $1.96 billion for the “fantastic” second quarter, the company said, “which vastly exceeded our expectations and represent the best second quarter of net bookings in our company’s history.”

Chief among the drivers of that good financial news was its latest pro basketball simulator NBA 2K26, “which set multiple records and has been delivering an unprecedented level of in-game spending.”

Among the notable additions to this year’s release were players and teams from the WNBA, as part of the MYTEAM mode. NBA 2K26 has sold 5 million units since its debut this summer, revenues further boosted by higher sales of premium versions, the company said.

Other sequels also hit the market, including off-kilter looter-shooter Borderlands 4, which received good reviews but also suffered plenty of glitches on the PC side. Mafia: The Old Country also debuted as the first Mafia title in a decade, placing the game’s action back in time, in Italy.

Mobile gaming also overperformed, led by Toon Blast, up 26% year over year, Match Factory, Color Block Jam, Zynga Poker and several of 2K’s mobile sports titles.

All of that didn’t counteract the deflating impact of another GTA6 delay, however. The market sent Take-Two shares nearly 1% on a poor overall day for the markets. Share prices dropped more than $2, to around $252.