Rockstar has not announced a GTA 6 release time. The date is fixed, Thursday, November 19, 2026, but the official site and Newswire give no hour. The only schedule that exists comes from PlayStation Store data: midnight local time by store region, starting in New Zealand at 11:00 UTC on November 18 and ending in Mexico at 06:00 UTC on November 19. That is a 19-hour spread. Our GTA 6 countdown shows the time left in your own time zone.
Treat the tables below as likely, not promised. Pin your GTA 6 countdown to November 19 and recheck the hour in launch week.
On this page
Short answer
- Official: November 19, 2026. Unofficial, from store data: 12:00 a.m. local time in each listed store region.
- First to unlock: New Zealand, 11:00 UTC on November 18. Last listed: Mexico, 06:00 UTC on November 19.
- US East: 12:00 a.m. ET on November 19. UK: 12:00 a.m. GMT on November 19.
- Russia, Kazakhstan, India and the rest of the CIS are not in the published windows.
Has Rockstar announced a launch hour?
No. We went through every Newswire post tagged GTA VI as of October 11, 2026, and none of them mentions an unlock time. The game page at rockstargames.com/VI says "Coming November 19, 2026" and nothing more precise.
The one hint Rockstar has given is about something else. Pre-orders opened "at midnight local time on June 25." That tells you how Rockstar handled a store event once. It does not promise the launch will work the same way.
Unlock windows from store data
The fan site GTAVice.net pulled timestamps from PlayStation Store listings and counted 15 regional unlock windows; GadgetReview published seven of them and says plainly that Rockstar did not confirm any. Each window is midnight local time in its store region. We added Moscow and Astana columns so you can see where each one falls on your own clock.
| Store region | Local unlock | UTC | Moscow (UTC+3) | Astana (UTC+5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand (NZDT) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 18, 11:00 | Nov 18, 14:00 | Nov 18, 16:00 |
| Australia East (AEDT) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 18, 13:00 | Nov 18, 16:00 | Nov 18, 18:00 |
| Japan (JST) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 18, 15:00 | Nov 18, 18:00 | Nov 18, 20:00 |
| Central Europe (CET) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 18, 23:00 | Nov 19, 02:00 | Nov 19, 04:00 |
| United Kingdom (GMT) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 19, 03:00 | Nov 19, 05:00 |
| US and Canada East (EST) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 19, 05:00 | Nov 19, 08:00 | Nov 19, 10:00 |
| Mexico and Central America (CST) | Nov 19, 00:00 | Nov 19, 06:00 | Nov 19, 09:00 | Nov 19, 11:00 |
Read it by store, not by city. These windows were taken from regional store data, so the clock that matters is the region of the store your copy comes from.
What your clock shows when each window opens
Most cities are not in the published list. For them we can only do the arithmetic: here is the local time when four key windows open. Offsets are the ones in force on November 19, after the autumn clock changes.
| City (offset on Nov 19) | New Zealand opens | Central Europe opens | UK opens | US East opens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi (UTC+5:30) | Nov 18, 16:30 | Nov 19, 04:30 | Nov 19, 05:30 | Nov 19, 10:30 |
| Tashkent, Astana, Almaty (UTC+5) | Nov 18, 16:00 | Nov 19, 04:00 | Nov 19, 05:00 | Nov 19, 10:00 |
| Bishkek (UTC+6) | Nov 18, 17:00 | Nov 19, 05:00 | Nov 19, 06:00 | Nov 19, 11:00 |
| Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan (UTC+4) | Nov 18, 15:00 | Nov 19, 03:00 | Nov 19, 04:00 | Nov 19, 09:00 |
| Moscow, Minsk (UTC+3) | Nov 18, 14:00 | Nov 19, 02:00 | Nov 19, 03:00 | Nov 19, 08:00 |
| Kyiv (UTC+2) | Nov 18, 13:00 | Nov 19, 01:00 | Nov 19, 02:00 | Nov 19, 07:00 |
| São Paulo (UTC−3) | Nov 18, 08:00 | Nov 18, 20:00 | Nov 18, 21:00 | Nov 19, 02:00 |
| Chicago (UTC−6) | Nov 18, 05:00 | Nov 18, 17:00 | Nov 18, 18:00 | Nov 18, 23:00 |
| Los Angeles (UTC−8) | Nov 18, 03:00 | Nov 18, 15:00 | Nov 18, 16:00 | Nov 18, 21:00 |
The left column is the moment the first player anywhere can start. It does not mean your copy opens then.
Russia, Kazakhstan and the CIS
None of the published windows covers Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, the South Caucasus or Ukraine. So for Moscow, Astana or Tashkent there is no store-data hour at all, only the reference times in the table above.
A few more details for this region. On October 11, 2026, the Rockstar Store opened from a Kazakhstan address shows "This title is unavailable in your country or region." Russia and Kazakhstan are not on Rockstar's pre-order lists. On October 18, 2026, the Russian PlayStation Store address for GTA VI led to a support page. We did not check the Xbox Store for these countries, so we are not drawing conclusions about it.
If your store does follow the local-midnight pattern, the answer is simply 00:00 on November 19 on your clock. That is a pattern, not a promise.
India, UK, US and Australia
UK: 12:00 a.m. GMT on November 19, which is 00:00 UTC. British clocks went back on October 25, so a summer-time table showing 23:00 is out of date.
US: the East Coast window is 12:00 a.m. ET on November 19. The published list does not split the US by time zone. If the whole US store opens at the East Coast moment, the West Coast gets it at 9:00 p.m. PT on November 18; if it opens at each zone's midnight, at 12:00 a.m. PT on the 19th. We do not know which.
Australia: the AEDT window, 12:00 a.m. on November 19 in Sydney and Melbourne (13:00 UTC on November 18). Perth and Brisbane are not listed separately.
India: not in the list. Local midnight would be 12:00 a.m. IST on November 19; the UK window would be 5:30 a.m. IST.
Pre-load time in your zone
Pre-load opens at local midnight on November 12, 2026, a week before launch, per Rockstar Support, and PlayStation describes it as "7-day pre-load access." A code from a boxed copy pre-loads from the same date once redeemed. Download size is still unknown; our GTA 6 file size and pre-load guide has a download-time table to help you budget the week.
What usually goes wrong
Using a summer-time table. Europe left summer time on October 25, 2026 and the US on November 1. A table that puts New York at 04:00 UTC or London at 23:00 used summer offsets. The November 19 values are 05:00 UTC and 00:00 UTC.
Taking the New Zealand time as global. Midnight in Auckland is 14:00 in Moscow on November 18. Players there may already be in the game while your copy is still locked, and that is normal for a staggered launch.
Assuming your region is in the list. Seven windows are public, 15 were counted. If your country is not in the table, the only honest plan is local midnight as a guess and the date as the certainty.
Waiting for one global UTC hour. Rockstar has not promised one. Pre-orders opened region by region at local midnight, which suggests the store-by-store approach, but nothing is announced.
Expecting a box to pre-load before it arrives. Digital pre-orders pre-load from local midnight on November 12, and a code from a box only once it is redeemed. If the box arrives on November 15, its pre-load starts on the 15th.
Planning a launch night with friends in other time zones? Post one moment and let each device convert it: the Discord timestamp generator turns a date and time into a code that Discord shows in every reader's local time. We update these tables if Rockstar announces anything. The full date story is on the GTA 6 release date page, both delays are on the delays timeline, and every page about the game is collected in the GTA 6 hub. Guides for GTA V and GTA Online are in the GTA hub, and everything else is on the guides page.
See also
- GTA 6 countdown by time zone
- GTA 6 Pre-Order Guide: Price, Bonus, Editions and Deadlines
- GTA 6 FAQ: 30 Short Answers on Date, Price, PC, Map, Online
FAQ
What time does GTA 6 come out in the US?
Rockstar has not said. PlayStation Store data puts the US and Canada East window at 12:00 a.m. ET on November 19 (05:00 UTC). The West Coast is not listed separately: if the US store uses the same moment, that is 9:00 p.m. PT on November 18.
What time does GTA 6 unlock in the UK?
By PlayStation Store data, at midnight GMT on November 19, 2026, which is 00:00 UTC. Rockstar has not confirmed this, so check again in the week of launch.
When does GTA 6 release in India (IST)?
India is not among the store windows published so far. If the Indian store follows the local-midnight pattern, it opens at 12:00 a.m. IST on November 19; if it follows the UK window, at 5:30 a.m. IST. Neither is confirmed.
What time in Moscow and Astana?
No store window for Russia or Kazakhstan has been published. For reference: when New Zealand unlocks it is 14:00 in Moscow and 16:00 in Astana on November 18; when the UK unlocks it is 03:00 and 05:00 on November 19.
Is the unlock time official?
No. Every unlock table online, ours included, comes from PlayStation Store timestamps scraped by a fan site. Rockstar has published only the date, November 19, 2026.
Does pre-load have its own unlock time?
Yes. Rockstar Support says pre-load "will begin at local midnight on November 12, 2026", a week before launch, and PlayStation lists it as 7-day pre-load access. A code from a boxed copy pre-loads from the same date once redeemed.
Will Rockstar announce a global unlock hour?
Unknown. For pre-orders it chose midnight local time on June 25, but it has not said whether launch will work the same way. If an announcement comes, it will be on Rockstar Newswire.
Sources
- Rockstar Support: GTA VI Platforms, Editions, and Versions (updated Aug 18, 2026, checked Oct 18, 2026)
- Rockstar Newswire: GTA VI is now set to launch November 19, 2026 (Nov 6, 2025)
- Rockstar Newswire: all GTA VI posts, no unlock-time post (checked Oct 11, 2026)
- GadgetReview: unlock windows from PlayStation Store data, not confirmed by Rockstar (Sep 8, 2026)
- Rockstar Newswire: pre-orders at midnight local time, pre-load from November 12 (Jun 24, 2026)
- PlayStation Store: Grand Theft Auto VI, 7-day pre-load access (checked Oct 11, 2026)
- Rockstar Store: GTA VI product page (checked Oct 11, 2026)