Seven per cent of American gamers say they would hand over their pet for a month if it meant playing GTA 6 a full week before everybody else. That is not a typo, and it is not even the most eyebrow-raising number in a new survey that has the internet laughing and wincing in equal measure.
With Rockstar’s long-awaited sequel landing on 19 November, research outfit Unwind Media polled 1,347 American gamers about what they would sacrifice for seven days of early access to Vice City. The answers range from the entirely reasonable to the genuinely concerning.
The Pet Question That Broke the Internet
Of the pet owners surveyed, 7% said they would give up their animal for a month in exchange for playing the game a week early. Among fans who had already pre-ordered, that figure nearly doubled to 13% — which suggests the deeper the wallet commitment, the weaker the attachment to the family dog.
To be fair to the respondents, the question was hypothetical, and nobody is suggesting millions of Americans are preparing to abandon their labradors. But the survey lands at the peak of what may be the biggest hype cycle in entertainment history. Rockstar has carpeted Miami with Vice City branding, struck a collaboration with the Miami Heat, and fielded fans who literally camped outside its headquarters with equipment to monitor oxygen levels and count cars coming and going, all for a sliver of information.
Thirteen years after Grand Theft Auto V, the appetite has curdled into something researchers can measure. And it measures strange.
What Else Would Fans Trade for Early Access?
The pets were only the headline. The full sacrifice ladder, reported by Dexerto and the New York Post, shows pre-orderers willing to give up dating apps (73%), social media (63%), alcohol (60%) and smoking (52%) for a month of early play. More than 40% would ditch fast food. Smartphones proved far harder to part with — just 16% would surrender theirs, which tells you where modern priorities actually sit.
Then there is the intimacy question. One in five sexually active respondents (21%) said they would forgo sex for a month to play a week early. Women were more willing than men, at 25% versus 19%, and among those who pre-ordered the game the number climbed to 32%.
Key point: Across every category in the Unwind Media survey, fans who had already pre-ordered GTA 6 were consistently the most willing to make sacrifices — roughly double the rates of the general sample.
IGN, which covered the findings, noted that the number of what it diplomatically called “deadbeat pet parents” doubled within the pre-order group. The pattern is clear: the money has been spent, the hype has compounded, and the hypotheticals get more extreme.
Couples Planning to Rob Virtual Corner Shops Together
Not everything in the survey was dystopian. Over half of participants (53%) said they planned to play GTA 6 together with their partner, and here the gender split flips again: 71% of women were keen to rob virtual corner shops with their other half, compared with 39% of men.
That is a mildly reassuring finding, given a trend that swept social media earlier this year in which concerned partners declared the game’s reported relationship mechanics technically “cheating”. According to Unwind Media, just 8% of those surveyed genuinely felt that way. The other 92% appear to have healthier boundaries, at least where polygons are concerned.
The Countdown to Vice City
GTA 6 releases on 19 November 2026 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X|S. North America sits among the last regions to unlock, which means New Zealand players will technically have several hours of spoiler-free supremacy — a fact that will console nobody who has just promised away the cat.
So the real question heading into launch fortnight is not whether the game can clear the absurd expectations built around it. It is whether, once the credits roll and the survey takers come clean, the pets will all still be there. Most likely yes. But 7% is 7%.
