GTA 6 pre-load moves up to November 10, and Rockstar confirms up to 212 GB

Rockstar has brought GTA 6's pre-load forward. In a Newswire post on November 3, the studio said digital pre-orders can start downloading on Tuesday, November 10, instead of the November 12 date announced when pre-orders opened in June.

When your download starts

The two consoles don't open the same way. On PS5, pre-load starts at midnight local time, so it rolls out time zone by time zone. On Xbox Series X|S, it opens everywhere at once: 00:00 GMT on November 10. That's 1 a.m. in Paris, Berlin, Rome and Warsaw, 9 p.m. on Monday, November 9, in Brasília, 6 p.m. on November 9 in central Mexico and 4 p.m. on November 9 on the US West Coast.

Pre-loading only gets the files onto your console. The game itself still unlocks at midnight local time on November 19, as the stores already showed. Our release time pages convert that midnight for every country.

Up to 212 GB

Rockstar now gives an official size: up to 212 GB, depending on your console. It doesn't break the figure down by platform. That's close to the roughly 210 GB read from PlayStation Store data last week, but this time it comes from Rockstar itself. On an original PS5, with about 667 GB of usable space, the game takes up nearly a third of the drive, and German outlet PC Games Hardware warns that things will be tight on the Xbox Series S. Clearing space this weekend is a good idea.

Boxed copies are a different story

The boxed editions contain a download code, not a disc. They reach shops from November 12, and you can only start the download once you've redeemed the code, so boxed buyers don't get the November 10 head start. Everyone starts playing on November 19.

A free Leonida map

There's a small bonus too. On launch day, Rockstar's website will offer a free printable poster with the cover art on one side and a map of Leonida on the other, a nod to the paper maps that used to come in GTA boxes. Shortly after launch, the Rockstar Store will also sell a printed version for $0.99, or add it free to any order. According to Push Square, the boxed copies don't include a paper map.

Rockstar didn't say why it moved the date. French site Presse-Citron sees it as a way to spread the load on download servers, but that's the outlet's reading, not Rockstar's. Some support pages and older guides still showed November 12 when the news broke; the Newswire post is the one to go by.