Rockstar revealed \u2018GTA Online: A Safehouse in the Hills\u2019 on December 5, bringing GTA V protagonist Michael De Santa back to the franchise. Buzz stood at 9.0 that day and 9.2 when the update launched on December 10, showing limited immediate lift.<\/p>\n
GTA VI pre-orders coincided with the strongest positive Buzz run<\/p>\n
The strongest positive run came alongside GTA VI pre-order announcements. Buzz stood at 17.9 when Rockstar announced pre-orders on June 18. It climbed to 22.0 when they opened on June 25 and reached 25.2 by July 7 \u2014 a gain of more than seven points.<\/p>\n
Anticipation around GTA VI\u2019s Extended Look also coincided with high scores. Buzz rose from 24.2 on August 5 to 26.8 on August 7, a day after Rockstar announced the August 27 showcase. That was the highest score recorded over the period analyzed.<\/p>\n
Some of the most controversial GTA stories that followed had relatively little impact. Buzz had climbed down to 21.7 by the time leaked GTA VI gameplay began circulating on August 18 and ticked up to 23.7 by August 25. A YouGov Surveys<\/a> poll conducted in the aftermath of the leaks revealed that less than a fifth of U.S. gamers had personally seen leaked content as of August 28th. <\/p>\n The Extended Look, which premiered on Netflix and subsequently on other platforms, didn\u2019t appear to trigger much immediate movement. But Buzz has trended upwards since then.<\/p>\n Zooming out from the individual news cycles, GTA\u2019s Buzz has generally been ticking upward over the past year, rising from 11.8 at the start of the observation period to 28 on September 28. The YouGov Surveys poll cited earlier provides an insight into why that might be \u2013 among Americans with an interest in gaming, 74% say they have heard at least a little about GTA VI, including 35% who have heard a lot. Just 11% say they have heard nothing at all.<\/p>\n