GTA 6 Sick Days Could Cost U.S. Economy Nearly $1B

Nearly $1 billion. That’s what economics professor José García Montalvo estimates the U.S. economy could lose if workers call out sick to play Grand Theft Auto VI when it launches next month. His calculation is simple: about 1 1/2 million workers taking the day off, multiplied by average annual output of roughly $70,000 per worker, according to the report.

The estimate arrives as the video game industry prepares for one of its most anticipated releases. Many Americans say they plan to call out sick. They’re not hiding it.

A Familiar Pattern

We’ve seen this before. When Grand Theft Auto V came out in 2013, reports found that as many as 6% of workers aged 18 to 35 in cities such as Los Angeles and New York took the day off to play. That’s more than a decade of evidence that a major game launch can pull a measurable slice of the young workforce away from their jobs for a day.

The sequel has taken a long time. Rockstar Games unveiled Grand Theft Auto VI in February 2022, four years ago. Rockstar originally slated the game for release in 2025, a year before today’s date, and has delayed it multiple times since. For fans, that’s meant years of waiting for the long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V.

What Fans Are Buying

Rockstar said the game is available for preorder at $79.99 and follows the adventures of a criminal couple navigating the fictional state of Leonida. That price tag stands out on its own. It asks consumers to pay a premium before a single player has touched the finished product.

Montalvo’s estimate relies on the average annual output figure, which treats a lost day of work as a straightforward subtraction from the economy. It’s a blunt tool. It doesn’t tell us who’s actually calling out, whether they’re hourly workers who lose pay when they skip a shift, or salaried employees with paid sick leave to burn. The report doesn’t say, and it doesn’t break down which employers or sectors would feel the hit.

That gap matters. A day of lost output for a large company with generous paid leave looks very different from a missed shift for someone paid by the hour with no safety net. The $1 billion headline number flattens those differences into a single line.

NewsNation’s Zach Kaplan contributed to the report.

Why This Matters:

On its face, this is a lighthearted story about a video game. But the numbers point to something real about how work is structured in America. When workers openly say they’ll use sick days for a product launch, it shows how the sick-day system gets stretched in practice. Paid leave is meant for illness and caregiving, and not every worker has it. Those who do can spend it on a game. Those who don’t have to choose between a paycheck and a day off. The estimate also shows how economists measure lost productivity, and how much that measurement hides. A $1 billion figure says little about who actually absorbs the cost, whether employers, hourly workers, or the broader economy. As the release approaches, it’s a reminder that paid leave isn’t just a perk. It shapes who can take a day off, and who can’t.