Grand Theft Auto VI’s Extended Look gave Netflix a measurable traffic boost, with U.S. mobile app usage rising 35% during the hour the presentation premiered compared with the previous hour.
The figures come from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower and were reported by GamesBeat following Rockstar Games’ August 27 showcase.
Sensor Tower measured Netflix activity during the 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET window, when Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look debuted on the streaming service.
Compared with the immediately preceding hour, U.S. mobile app usage increased by 35%.
The increase was even larger against other benchmarks.
Sensor Tower found that mobile app users were around 50% higher than during the same period on the previous day and 41% higher than during the equivalent hour one week earlier.
Compared with the average user count during the same time slot across the previous 12 Thursdays, Netflix’s U.S. mobile app usage was almost 50% higher.
Web traffic saw an even sharper jump.
Netflix web visitors during the GTA VI presentation were more than 125% above the average recorded during the same hour across those previous 12 Thursdays.
The spike provides early evidence that Netflix’s unusual decision to host a major video game reveal was capable of bringing a substantial audience onto the platform.
Rockstar premiered the Extended Look on Netflix at 3 p.m. ET before releasing it through its official YouTube channel and GTA VI website at 9 p.m. ET later that day.
That gave Netflix a six-hour window in which subscribers were the first audience able to watch the approximately 27-minute presentation.
Netflix itself described the collaboration as an opportunity to make the platform a destination for major storytelling events beyond traditional film and television.
The Extended Look was available globally to Netflix subscribers and was captured entirely from in-game footage running on PlayStation 5.
It provided Rockstar’s most extensive official look at GTA VI so far, showing Jason and Lucia, missions, combat, driving, character switching and a wide range of activities across Vice City and the wider state of Leonida.
The scale of the audience response also appears to have placed pressure on Netflix’s infrastructure.
GamesBeat reported that some viewers experienced service issues as the presentation went live, although the disruption was not prolonged.
Sensor Tower senior insights analyst Abe Yousef said major events tied to recognizable intellectual property can help Netflix re-engage lapsed users and attract people who might not otherwise be active on the service.
The firm also released estimates relating to GTA VI pre-orders.
According to Sensor Tower’s data, the game has accumulated approximately 4.6 million pre-orders so far, with around 77% attributed to PlayStation.
Those figures are estimates rather than sales numbers released by Rockstar Games or parent company Take-Two Interactive, so they should not be treated as official shipment or preorder totals.
The Netflix usage figures are similarly third-party measurements rather than internal Netflix audience data.
Even with that qualification, the size of the reported increase is notable.
A 35% hour-over-hour rise in U.S. mobile usage and a web-traffic increase exceeding 125% against the 12-Thursday average suggest the GTA VI presentation functioned more like a major entertainment event than a conventional game trailer release.
Rockstar has now made the Extended Look freely available outside Netflix.
Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled to launch on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
