An economist reckons the long-awaited launch of GTA 6 could cost the US economy $1 billion due to an estimated 1.5 million workers taking the day off sick.

That comes from the International Business Times, which reports that an economics professor at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona offers a simple reason for his academic projection – notably not an official forecast. People need time to play Rockstar's long-awaited opus when it launches on November 19, and work is simply in the way. People have waited 13 years for GTA 6, so why waste time working when you can get stuck into it?

So what's behind the math? The short answer is that the average yearly output of a US worker is $70,000, so take that and the 1.5 million absences, and you get a short-term productive dip of around 2%.

Digging in further, the economics expert reckons that men aged 18 to 30 will make up the majority of workers pulling a sicky – and that the technology sector will be the hardest hit. Apparently, that part should come as little surprise, as it closely resembles the age and occupation of people who took time off to play GTA 5.

Furthermore, we can expect an impact on people who do turn up to work, as the need to talk about GTA 6 and stay up late to play it may reduce their performance.

Does any of this mean anything? Not really. The report goes on to say that even if this were to happen, the money lost from people not working will be made up by what Take-Two and Rockstar Games make from, you guessed it, releasing GTA 6.

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