HR firm BrightHR says Grand Theft Auto shows up in 4.63% of UK time-off requests for the November 19 launch day, with an estimated £12.4 million in leave booked across November and December. The request notes are the best part.
Ten days out, Grand Theft Auto VI is already clearing calendars. HR software company BrightHR crunched absence data from more than 1.2 million employees at 70,000 UK businesses and found that Grand Theft Auto is named in 4.63% of all time-off requests for Thursday, November 19, the day the game launches on Xbox Series X|S. Across November and December, the company estimates 83,000 days of annual leave have been booked citing GTA, at a projected cost of £12.4 million to UK employers. Launch day alone accounts for an estimated £3.14 million.
That is not a niche hobby showing up in a spreadsheet. That is a cultural event, and the receipts are coming from payroll software.
BrightHR says more than twice as many UK workers have booked launch day off as will be away on their honeymoon. One fan went even further, saving up enough leave to vanish for a full fortnight to finish the game. If that’s you, respect. Pace yourself.
The reasons people typed into their requests are pure gold. BrightHR CEO Alan Price shared a few in the company’s announcement on theHRD: “GTA, week on the sofa in my pants,” “GTA Release I’ll resign if this is denied,” and the beautifully simple “GTA day. Game on, losers.”
Price is firmly on the players’ side here. “Some bosses might roll their eyes at taking time off work to game, but they shouldn’t view it as time wasted,” he said. “Taking gaming time off is every bit as valid as booking annual leave to attend a football match, concert or hen do.”
We agree completely. Nobody blinks when someone books a day off for a cup final or a stadium tour. A game people have waited 13 years for deserves the same treatment, and it’s refreshing to see the people who process the paperwork say so out loud.
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Millennials are leading the charge
The data has a clear age story. BrightHR says millennials, who were roughly 17 to 32 when GTA V released, are driving the rush, with GTA making up 4% of all the reasons they gave for booking launch day off. Gen Z is right there too, with the game ranking among their top 10 reasons for time off on November 19.
That tracks. A whole generation grew up with Los Santos, then spent over a decade waiting for the return to Vice City. Now they have jobs, annual leave and a very specific date circled.
The UK is clearly the hot spot. BrightHR says clients in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand saw GTA make up 2% of launch-day leave reasons, and no employees in Canada mentioned Grand Theft Auto at all. Canada, are you all just planning to call in sick?
For Xbox players, the takeaway is simple. November 19 is going to be one of the biggest launch days this generation has seen, and a lot of people plan to spend it on the couch with a controller. If your boss hasn’t signed off yet, BrightHR’s CEO just handed you your argument.
Image: Rockstar Games (official GTA VI Artwork & Wallpapers; Jason and Lucia 01 landscape)
