'GTA 6' Pre-Loads Are Slowing Down The Internet, Warns ISP

GTA VI breaks Virgin Media broadband records

Downloads for Grand Theft Auto VI pre-loads have driven a record-breaking day on Virgin Media O2’s broadband network, setting both its biggest-ever traffic peak and highest-ever daily data volume on November 10th, as gamers rushed to pre-load the long-awaited game ahead of its release on November 19th. The network’s previous record for evening peak period […]

Will Grand Theft Auto 6 break the internet? UK's biggest broadband operator braces for impact, saying "GTA 6 has been on our radar for a long time"

As Grand Theft Auto 6 breaks pre-order records on the PlayStation and Xbox stores, and looks poised to break many more sales records once it launches next week, questions of whether it will also break the internet arise. Collective network load will undoubtedly spike around its release - will regional infrastructure be able to bear it?

GTA 6 breaks broadband records before launch, reportedly crosses USD 1 Billion in pre-orders

GTA 6 has reportedly broken internet traffic records in the UK and Ireland after pre-downloads began on November 10. The 212GB game has triggered a massive surge in broadband usage ahead of its November 19 launch.

'GTA 6' Pre-Loads Are Slowing Down The Internet, Warns ISP

Openreach details UK broadband traffic impact from GTA 6 pre-loading

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has revealed to ISPreview that the start of pre-loading for the GTA VI video game, which began at midnight Tuesday (10th Nov 2026), drove around a 33% increase in downstream traffic across their national broadband network versus an average Tuesday. The hotly anticipated game is known to have a file size of around 212 GigaBytes (PS5), albeit varying a bit between different game console platforms. Overall Ope…