GTA 6 to cost the UK £12.4 million in annual leave
The launch of the next Grand Theft Auto videogame is set to be felt across the UK’s workforce as thousands of people take annual leave to play the game on 19 November.
Employee platform Bright HR looked at absence data from more than 1.2 million employees across 70,000 UK businesses to uncover exactly how the launch is impacting the workforce.
The data shows that on launch day, GTA accounts for nearly 5% of the reasons staff have given for requesting time off, more than honeymoons, graduations and visits to Disney. Based on BrightHR’s calculations, the annual leave associated with GTA could be worth around £3.14 million on this single day alone.
However, because of the length of the game, its length, and expected popularity, several people have also booked time off for the rest of the year to play the game.
Across November and December, an estimated 83,000 days have been booked for GTA, at a projected annual leave cost of £12.4 million to UK employers. One employee was found to have booked a whole fortnight off to complete the game.
More than twice as many staff have booked 19 November off for GTA as have booked it off for their honeymoon. In BrightHR’s annual leave reasons, 0.46% mentioned GTA, compared with 0.18% mentioning a honeymoon, 0.06% mentioning Disney and 0.19% mentioning graduation.
Bookings also point to a spike around launch day. There is a 7.89% increase in days off booked on Thursday 19 November 2026 compared with Thursday 12 November 2026. By comparison, the equivalent Thursdays in 2025 saw an increase of just 2.51%.
“Some bosses might roll their eyes at time off to game, but they shouldn’t view it as time wasted. Taking gaming time off is every bit as valid as booking annual leave for a football match, a concert or a hen do,” said Alan Price (CEO at BrightHR).
“Don’t underestimate what makes your team tick. Some employees want to see the world; others want to tear around it through a console. This is honesty and trust in action: staff are unafraid to ask for what they want. As long as it doesn’t leave you short staffed, there’s no reason to decline requests.”
