Virgin Media says GTA VI preloads gave it a "record-breaking 24 hours," beating the traffic from a Champions League night and a Fortnite season launch. YouFibre had to use emergency traffic management after downloads choked part of its network. Here's why getting your preload done now matters.
GTA VI isn’t out for eight more days, and it’s already straining the internet. Virgin Media says the rush to preload Rockstar’s 212 GB game gave its UK broadband network a “record-breaking 24 hours,” and a smaller provider, YouFibre, had to step in with emergency traffic management after GTA downloads jammed part of its network on Tuesday night.
Virgin Media’s numbers, reported by ISPreview, are wild. Its previous record for evening peak traffic was set during the Arsenal v Atlético Madrid Champions League match. GTA VI preloads beat it by 3.8%. Total daily data volume beat the record set by the Fortnite Chapter 7 Mini Season launch on November 1 by 4%. By 11:05 PM UK time on Tuesday, Virgin Media’s network had already moved more data than on any previous full day.
The surge started the second the doors opened. Between midnight and 1 AM UK time on Tuesday, November 10, Virgin Media saw broadband traffic jump 51.6% compared to the same hour a week earlier. By 9 AM, the total downloaded was 73.3% higher than the previous Tuesday. Midnight in the UK is 7 PM ET, the same moment the Xbox Series X|S preload opened, as we covered in our preload story.
“GTA VI is already proving to be a record-breaking moment for our network, with fans downloading the game in huge numbers before it launches,” said Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2. “We’ve been preparing our network for the demand that comes with a launch of this scale, so fans can focus on exploring Vice City, not watching a download bar.”
YouFibre hit the brakes
YouFibre, a UK fiber provider, didn’t get off as easy. On Tuesday evening, customers got an email that left no doubt about the cause. “We are aware of a network capacity issue affecting the YouFibre network, due to the high demand of GTA 6 downloads,” it read, according to a customer who posted it on the ISPreview forum. “Unfortunately, this has caused the overall download speeds of the service to decrease.”
YouFibre CEO Jeremy Chelot was even more direct on X.
A BNG is a broadband network gateway, the equipment that connects customers to the wider network. A few hours later, YouFibre told customers the “emergency traffic management” was done and service was back to normal. It added one note for gamers: if you’re still downloading GTA 6, your speed test will look lower, because the game download is being prioritized to finish quickly.
Why this matters for launch day
Here’s the thing. Tuesday was a preload, spread out over days, and it still set records. ISPreview expects the load to ease as preloads finish, but warns that November 19 could bring a day-one patch and a wave of downloads from people who didn’t pre-order. That’s the real danger zone: everyone who waited, all hitting the same servers on the same night.
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That’s exactly why Xbox has been telling people not to wait. In its GTA VI cloud announcement, Xbox said: “Considering the unprecedented demand, we encourage everyone to begin pre-loading as soon as possible to ensure you’re prepared for launch day.” If you’ve pre-ordered on Xbox Series X|S, start that download now and let your console finish while the network is calmer. You’ll need up to 212 GB free.
Xbox players also have one option that skips the download entirely. GTA VI will stream through Xbox Cloud Gaming on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S starting at 1 AM ET on November 19, using Series S settings. You still have to buy the game, and cloud time now comes with monthly hour limits, but if your internet is the bottleneck, it’s a real backup plan that only Xbox has at launch. We broke that down in our Take-Two partnership story.
A preload breaking a national network record eight days early tells you everything about where this launch is headed. Get your download done. Let me know in the comments how fast yours went.
Image: Rockstar Games
Sources
- ISPreview: ISP Virgin Media UK reports broadband traffic surge as GTA VI pre-loads start
- ISPreview Forum: GTA 6 downloads, impact on ISPs (YouFibre customer emails)
- X: Jeremy Chelot, YouFibre CEO
- thinkbroadband: YouFibre rebalanced network to handle GTA VI
- Dexerto: GTA 6 is causing internet issues as players rush to preload
- Xbox Wire: Grand Theft Auto VI Comes to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S Through Xbox Cloud Gaming on November 19
- OnPoint 4 Gamers: GTA 6 preload moved up to November 10
- OnPoint 4 Gamers: Xbox Cloud Gaming Gets Monthly Hour Limits This November
- OnPoint 4 Gamers: Xbox Signs a 10-Year Partnership With Take-Two
