Rockstar Games will reportedly launch GTA 6 at midnight local time in most countries on it’s officially scheduled release date, November 19–which has already led to many players adjusting their console regions in hopes to get to play early. The midnight local release schedule also means players living in New Zealand will get to play GTA 6 around 20 hours earlier than the players located in Mexico and in many other regions around the world.
And although pre-loading is available, you can’t start playing GTA 6 until your timezone’s allotted window arrives, unlike a worldwide launch time which ensures everyone in the world can start playing at the same time.
First spotted by GTAVice, a total of 15 release times for Rockstar’s open world behemoth has been listed, which starts in New Zealand at 11am UTC on November 18, which is around a full day’s time of head start from most other regions.
GTAVice also claims that the game is set to release ‘beginning in New Zealand and progressing through 15 release windows across 19 hours,’ which could mean players in the United States may be 18 to 19 hours behind.
So after knowing all of this, if you absolutely don’t want to wait that much time to start playing the biggest game ever, you can resort to the well-known ‘New Zealand trick’, which is a workaround to fool your console into thinking you’re actually playing from New Zealand. This will technically allow you to play GTA 6 right along with the players who actually live in New Zealand, although if you have a Playstation 5, this trick doesn’t work and the only way you can play early would be via a separate New Zealand account which is funded via a New Zealand gift card.
And after New Zealand, GTA 6 will be ready for playing in the following countries, in this specific order–Australia, Japan, India, mainland Europe, U.K., and then finally to the U.S.
GTA 6 is currently slated to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026.
