GTA 6 reviews

Last verified: November 3, 2026, against the Metacritic and OpenCritic pages for the game.

GTA 6 reviews will reportedly go live on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, one day before the GTA 6 release date of November 19. Insider NateTheHate posted the date on October 26, saying Rockstar has begun sending review code to media outlets, and Insider Gaming says it independently verified it. Rockstar has not confirmed the date. Metacritic and OpenCritic both have Grand Theft Auto VI pages, and neither shows a score yet.

Has a GTA 6 review date been announced?#

Not by Rockstar. Its official GTA VI page gives the November 19, 2026 release date and the two platforms, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and nothing about reviews. The November 18 date comes from an insider and a news outlet:

• October 26, 2026: NateTheHate posted on X: "Rockstar Games have begun to distribute review code of Grand Theft Auto VI to media outlets. Review embargo is November 18th." Insider Gaming published his post the same day and wrote that it "can also independently verify these reports". It added that review copies "allegedly went out at the end of October 2026", which would give reviewers three to four weeks with the game.
• October 27, 2026: GameWatcher reported the same claim and noted that "it remains unclear how widely review copies have been distributed or whether all outlets will operate under the same restrictions."

No embargo hour has been reported. On October 14, Insider Gaming had said it knew a preliminary date but was withholding it because it was "subject to change in the run-up to the game being released". It has not said whether the November 18 date is the one it held back.

Are GTA 6 review copies watermarked? (unconfirmed)#

Reportedly, yes. Content creator Jeremy, who posts as ManaByte, claimed on X that review copies show the reviewer's name flashing on screen, so any leaked footage points back to the copy it came from, and that a reviewer or outlet caught leaking would be "eternally blacklisted from all future Rockstar releases," Notebookcheck reported on October 27, 2026. The claim covers the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions. Rockstar has not confirmed any of it.

• A moving mark (unconfirmed). According to Twisted Voxel, ManaByte said the watermark moves around the screen, which makes it hard to blur out, and that he had also seen a version with a transparent grid of names over the picture.
• Standard practice, says Tom Henderson. Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson replied that such measures are standard industry practice when publishers send review copies remotely, disagreed that the leaks had "spooked" Rockstar, and said Rockstar is taking further precautions ManaByte did not mention, Twisted Voxel reports.
• New for the series. ManaByte pointed out that Rockstar held supervised review events for GTA V in 2013, so remote review code with watermarks would be a new approach for GTA. Twisted Voxel says Henderson agreed.

Our analysis: if the reports are right, anything presented as review-copy footage before the reported November 18 embargo is unauthorized and likely full of spoilers. Our GTA 6 leaks guide has tips for avoiding them until launch.

What was reported earlier (unconfirmed)#

These earlier claims led up to the November 18 report. Rockstar has confirmed none of them.

• Reviews before launch (unconfirmed). On October 14, 2026, Insider Gaming reported that it had learned GTA 6 reviews will go live before the November 19 release, a claim Rockstar has not confirmed.
• Review copies by the end of October (unconfirmed). The same day, insider NateTheHate, posting as NateDrake in a ResetEra thread, made an unconfirmed claim in reply to a question about whether review copies were already circulating: "Not yet but they will before end of the month." Rockstar Intel and Gameranx reported the unconfirmed post as his. If copies do go out by October 31, reviewers would have the game for at least 19 days before launch; that is our arithmetic, not a reported figure.
• An earlier claim pointed the other way (unconfirmed). In May 2026, Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe claimed on the X do Controle podcast, without confirmation from Rockstar, that no review codes would be sent and that journalists would instead play at a supervised review event, Insider Gaming reported. NateTheHate's October comment about review copies conflicts with that unconfirmed claim.

How GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 reviews ran#

For both games, reviews went live one day before release, and both now hold a Metascore of 97 on Metacritic.

• Grand Theft Auto V launched on September 17, 2013. On September 16, GamingBolt reported that the media embargo was up and that many outlets had published their reviews, IGN's among them.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 launched on October 26, 2018. Metacritic announced on October 16, 2018 that reviews would start going up on Thursday, October 25 at 4:01 a.m. Pacific, ComicBook.com reported, and IGN's review ran that day.

Our analysis: the reported November 18 date matches that pattern exactly. Two past launches and an insider report pointing to the same day make November 18 the most likely date, but it stays unconfirmed until Rockstar or Metacritic announces it.

Where GTA 6 review scores will appear#

• Metacritic lists Grand Theft Auto VI on PS5 and Xbox Series X with a November 19, 2026 release. Its Metascore reads "tbd" and the page says critic reviews are not available yet.
• OpenCritic lists Grand Theft Auto VI for November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, with no score yet.

Both pages start filling in when the embargo lifts, and more reviews keep arriving afterward. On Red Dead Redemption 2's embargo day, its Metascore stood at 97 from 77 publications, according to GamingBolt; Metacritic's main page for the game now shows 97 based on 99 critic reviews.

What it means if you are waiting for reviews#

GTA 6 unlocks at midnight local time on November 19, which in the US is 12:00 a.m. Eastern, or 9:00 p.m. Pacific on November 18, as our release time guide explains. Our analysis: if the reported November 18 embargo holds, US players could start the game less than a day after the first scores appear.

Pre-load opens on November 10, Rockstar announced on November 3, so if the reported date holds you could finish downloading several days before the first reviews appear. The pre-load guide covers how that works, and the release date guide has the confirmed launch details. We will update this page when an embargo date is made public or the first reviews go live.