What time does GTA 6 unlock in your country? Every store region, read off the PlayStation Store
Midnight on 19 November, but whose midnight? The store lists one time per region, and for the US that's midnight in New York. Here's every region, and the part nobody's confirmed.
Last updated
By Wes Calloway
Method: Release timestamps read on 21 October 2026 straight from the PlayStation Store product pages for nine regional stores (UK, US, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, India, Australia, New Zealand). Regions we did not read ourselves are marked, and come from GamerFuzion's check of both the PlayStation and Xbox listings.
Grand Theft Auto 6 unlocks at midnight on Thursday 19 November 2026. The question is whose midnight.
There's no single global moment. It's a rolling unlock that follows midnight around the planet, so New Zealand's playing while most of Europe is still at work on Wednesday. But the stores don't run it city by city. Each PlayStation Store region has one release time, and we read them off the store pages ourselves.
When it unlocks for you
Here's the answer worked out from your own clock first.
Your unlock
Reading your clock…
Working out your timezone.
Who plays before you
| Where | Zone | Relative to you |
|---|---|---|
| Auckland | NZDT | … |
| Sydney | AEDT | … |
| Tokyo | JST | … |
| Dubai | GST | … |
| Berlin, Madrid, Paris | CET | … |
| London | GMT | … |
| São Paulo | BRT | … |
| New York | EST | … |
| Chicago | CST | … |
| Los Angeles | PST | … |
| Honolulu | HST | … |
Worked out from your browser's timezone, assuming you unlock at your own midnight. Rockstar hasn't confirmed that. The PlayStation Store lists one midnight per store region instead (the US and Canada on Eastern time), so in a country with several time zones it could come earlier. Offsets shown are the ones in force on 19 November, so daylight saving is already accounted for.
Every region, from the store listings
Local times are midnight in the time zone each store's set to. UTC's in brackets so you can convert anything that isn't listed.
- New Zealand: 00:00 Thursday (11:00 UTC Wednesday 18). First in the world.
- Australia: 00:00 Thursday in Sydney and Melbourne (13:00 UTC Wednesday).
- Japan and South Korea: 00:00 Thursday (15:00 UTC Wednesday). *Reported by GamerFuzion.*
- Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan: 00:00 Thursday (16:00 UTC Wednesday). *Reported by GamerFuzion.*
- India: 00:00 Thursday IST (18:30 UTC Wednesday).
- United Arab Emirates: 00:00 Thursday (20:00 UTC Wednesday). *Reported by GamerFuzion.*
- Finland, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Israel, South Africa: 00:00 Thursday (22:00 UTC Wednesday). *Reported by GamerFuzion.*
- Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the rest of central Europe: 00:00 Thursday (23:00 UTC Wednesday).
- UK, Ireland and Portugal: 00:00 Thursday (00:00 UTC).
- Brazil, Argentina, Chile: 00:00 Thursday in Brasilia (03:00 UTC).
- United States and Canada: 00:00 Thursday Eastern (05:00 UTC).
- Mexico: 00:00 Thursday in Mexico City (06:00 UTC). Last.
From Auckland to Mexico City that's nineteen hours. By the time North America starts, the game's been out somewhere for most of a day.
The part nobody's confirmed
Look at the US line again. The store lists the whole United States and Canada at 05:00 UTC, which is midnight in New York. If consoles unlock at the store's time, that's 11pm Wednesday in Chicago, 10pm in Denver and 9pm in Los Angeles.
The same goes anywhere one store covers several time zones. Australia's single time is midnight on the east coast, which would make it 9pm Wednesday in Perth.
Some PlayStation and Xbox launches have unlocked at midnight in each console's own time zone instead, which would make Los Angeles wait for its own midnight. Rockstar hasn't said which this is. The clock above shows your own local midnight, so treat it as the latest you'll wait. It could well come earlier.
The way to know for sure is your own store page. Open the GTA 6 listing on your console in launch week and it'll show the release time converted to your account.
Spoilers get there before you do
A rolling unlock means the opening hours of the story will be on social media before big parts of the world can start playing.
If that bothers you, mute the obvious terms before you go to bed on the 18th. Waiting until you wake up on the 19th is too late. Muting GTA 6, GTA VI, Jason and Lucia covers most of it.
Preload first
Preloading opens on 12 November, a full week ahead, and that's where launch night really gets decided. Estimates put the download at 150 to 200GB, though Rockstar hasn't published a figure. Our preload guide covers when it starts, how long it takes and the two settings that stop it stalling overnight.
The physical edition doesn't have a disc in it, only a code, so physical buyers are downloading too.
The checklist
- Clear about 250GB of internal storage now, to cover a day-one patch
- Preload from 12 November, not the night before
- Redeem a code-in-box the moment it arrives
- Check your own store listing for the exact time in launch week
- Mute the spoiler terms before bed on the 18th
Our countdown page counts down to midnight US Eastern, and the clock above works out your own.
Are you playing GTA 6 on day one?
Votes are anonymous. One per browser.
Sources
Where to buy
Make room before 12 November
Estimates put the download at 150 to 200GB and it has to live on internal storage to run. A base PS5 has about 667GB usable, so one or two other big games is all it takes to be short.
Needed before preload opens on 12 November
- Amazon: Must be an M.2 NVMe with a heatsink. A bare drive will not fit the bay.
- Amazon: Xbox uses a proprietary card rather than a standard drive.
Some links here are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy something after clicking one. It never changes the price you pay, and no retailer has any say in what we write. How this site is funded.
Keep reading
The GTA 6 launch checklist
Storage, preload, unlock time and the spoiler problem. Everything worth sorting before 19 November, in the order it matters.
3 min read
GTA 6's boxed copy is just a code, and some shops won't sell it
Three weeks out, here's what the no-disc box means for trade-ins, slow internet and anyone who wanted a game on the shelf.
3 min read
GTA 6 preload: when it starts, how long it takes, and the two settings that stop it stalling
Preloading opens on 12 November, a week before launch. On a typical home connection the download is an overnight job, and a console that falls asleep halfway through is how people miss launch night.
3 min read