The launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong caused digital storefronts to crash. How will they cope with the launch of GTA 6 at 212GB?
Back in September 2025, the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong crashed the digital storefronts of Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam, as players who had waited over eight years for a follow-up to 2017's Hollow Knight rushed to download the highly anticipated sequel.
The wait for a sequel to Grand Theft Auto 5 has been even longer – some 13 years – and the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 will be orders of magnitude bigger than Silksong's.
Silksong sold 7 million units in the first three months, reaching a peak of over half a million concurrent players a day after launch. GTA 6, by contrast, has already been pre-ordered by nearly 8 million players according to Sensor Tower estimates, with many more sales expected at launch on November 19. And whereas Silksong came in at a svelte download size of 8GB on Steam, GTA 6 weighs in at a whopping 212GB.
Importantly, GTA 6 is also the first AAA blockbuster of this scale to launch as a digital-only release. When GTA 5 launched back in 2013, the focus of the games business was still largely physical – but this time around, everyone who wants to buy the game will have to download it.
The pre-load period for GTA 6 starts at midnight on November 10 , ahead of the official launch on November 19.
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