The release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailers in December 2023 and May 2025 produced one of the largest organic content waves in TikTok's history. Where YouTube hosted the official trailer drops and X (formerly Twitter) carried the headline announcement metrics, TikTok functioned as the primary engine of vernacular reception: the place where the trailers were dissected frame-by-frame, parodied, lip-synced, remixed, and folded back into wider participatory cultures (Maruf, 2023; Collins and Richardson, 2025). Within hours of each trailer's release, hashtags such as #GTA6, #GTAVI, #GTA6Trailer, #ViceCity and #LuciaAndJason began trending globally, with the platform's algorithmic For You Page surfacing reaction content at a scale that arguably exceeded the gaming-press response (Wikipedia, 2026). This report surveys how TikTok users responded to the two official trailers, the dominant content formats that emerged, and what those reactions reveal about the platform's role in contemporary games marketing.
The first trailer was leaked on X roughly fifteen hours ahead of schedule, prompting Rockstar Games to release the official version on YouTube on 4 December 2023 (Maruf, 2023). Within twelve hours it had become the most-viewed non-music YouTube debut in history, but a substantial portion of that attention was generated and recycled through TikTok (Wikipedia, 2026). Three formats dominated the platform in the days following the release.
The first was the classic "reaction" format: split-screen creators filming themselves watching the trailer for the first time, often using TikTok's stitch and duet features to overlay their commentary on the official video. Major gaming creators, alongside thousands of mid-tier and micro-creators, produced these clips, with the most-viewed individual reactions reportedly exceeding tens of millions of views each (Collins and Richardson, 2025). Second, frame-analysis videos broke down the trailer's 91-second runtime into dozens of micro-observations: number plates, in-game social-media parodies, references to Florida Man memes, alligators in swimming pools, and the "twerking on a car" shot that became one of the trailer's most recirculated images (Purslow, 2023; Wikipedia, 2026). Third, and most distinctive to TikTok, was the "Florida Joker" cycle: real Floridian TikTokers — most prominently Lawrence Sullivan, who had styled himself as the "Florida Joker" years before the trailer aired — claimed that Rockstar had appropriated their likenesses and demanded compensation. Sullivan's response videos, in which he threatened legal action and demanded "two mil," went viral on TikTok and were re-reported across mainstream press, becoming arguably the defining meme of the first trailer's aftermath (Maruf, 2023).
Tom Petty's Love Is a Long Road, the trailer's soundtrack, also migrated rapidly onto TikTok as a sound. Spotify reported a near-37,000% increase in streams in the days after release, much of it driven by TikTok creators using the track over Vice City fan edits, beach footage and nostalgia montages (Wikipedia, 2026). The sound's adoption demonstrated TikTok's now-routine ability to convert a trailer's diegetic music into a platform-native trend.
The second trailer, released on 6 May 2025, generated over 475 million views across all platforms in 24 hours — surpassing Deadpool & Wolverine's record as the biggest video launch in history (THR, 2025; Wikipedia, 2026). TikTok again played a central role. The Pointer Sisters' Hot Together, used over the trailer's montage of Vice City beaches and protagonists Jason and Lucia, saw an estimated 182,000% increase in Spotify streams, with TikTok identified by trade press as the principal driver of that uplift (THR, 2025). The track was used in tens of thousands of TikToks within a week, ranging from summer-vibe edits and travel reels to character-shipping content focused on Lucia and Jason's relationship dynamic.
Reaction content shifted in tone for the second trailer. Where the first trailer had inspired surprise and meme-making, the second prompted a more analytical wave: TikTok creators dissected the 70 screenshots Rockstar released alongside the video, debated whether the footage was genuinely PS5 gameplay (Rockstar issued a public statement reiterating that it was, in response to TikTok-led scepticism), and produced "graphics comparison" edits placing GTA VI alongside GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 and real-world Miami footage (Collins and Richardson, 2025; Wikipedia, 2026). Cosplay and character-art TikToks featuring Lucia Caminos — the series' first non-optional female protagonist — also surged, reflecting the broader cultural significance attached to her casting (Collins and Richardson, 2025).
Beyond reactions and music, two sub-trends are worth noting. First, the "before GTA 6" meme, which had circulated since 2022 to register absurdity about world events occurring before the game's release, was revived and amplified on TikTok after each trailer dropped (Wikipedia, 2026). Second, repeated delays — the May 2025 push to 2026, and the subsequent November 2026 delay announced in late 2025 — generated waves of disappointment-comedy TikToks, including aging-timelapse jokes and skits about players who would "retire before launch" (Wikipedia, 2026). Not all reception was celebratory: TikTok also hosted criticism of Rockstar's labour practices following the firing of 34 employees in October 2025, with union-aligned creators using the platform to raise awareness of IWGB protests (Wikipedia, 2026).
TikTok did not merely host reactions to the GTA VI trailers; it shaped how the trailers were understood, remixed and remembered. The Florida Joker cycle, the music-driven trends around Tom Petty and the Pointer Sisters, and the persistent meme economy around delays and the "before GTA 6" format collectively demonstrate that, for a generation of consumers, a trailer's cultural footprint is now measured at least as much in TikTok sounds and stitches as in YouTube view counts.
Collins, R. and Richardson, T. (2025) 'What have we learned from Grand Theft Auto 6's second trailer?', BBC News, 6 May. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g2grmrx4po (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Maruf, R. (2023) 'GTA 6 leak: Grand Theft Auto trailer reveals game's release date', CNN Business, 4 December. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/04/business/gta-6-trailer-release-leak/index.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Purslow, M. (2023) '99 Details From the GTA 6 Trailer', IGN, 6 December. Available at: https://www.ign.com/articles/99-details-from-the-gta-6-trailer (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
THR (2025) 'Grand Theft Auto VI trailer 2 breaks records with 475 million views in 24 hours', The Hollywood Reporter, 7 May.
Wikipedia (2026) 'Grand Theft Auto VI', Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).