Grand Theft Auto VI may still be months away, but the global race to play Rockstar’s next blockbuster is already well underway.
A new July 2026 gaming report by live-streaming platform Zero1 has ranked the countries most excited for GTA 6, comparing online search interest, active GTA 5 player bases, average playtime, user ratings and expected GTA 6 pricing.
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The winner? The United Kingdom.
According to the study, the UK scored a perfect 100 in the final ranking, helped by 14.8 million monthly GTA 6-related searches. Adjusted for population, that works out to around 212 searches per 1,000 residents, suggesting unusually high online interest ahead of launch.
The UK also still has a large GTA 5 player base, with 788,700 active players. Local players spend an average of 118.9 hours in GTA 5, with gaming sessions lasting more than five hours on average.
Switzerland came second with a score of 99. Swiss players rated GTA 5 highly at 4.6 out of 5 and recorded 1.6 million GTA 6 searches. However, they may also face one of the highest prices in the ranking, with the Ultimate Edition estimated at around $123.
Canada ranked third, driven by 5.4 million monthly searches and some of the longest play sessions in the study. Canadian players spend an average of 167.8 hours in GTA 5, with sessions stretching beyond eight hours.
New Zealand and Australia completed the top five. New Zealand recorded strong interest relative to its population, while Australia had 4.4 million searches and more than 635,000 active GTA 5 players.
The United States ranked sixth despite having the biggest raw search volume at 43.2 million and 2.2 million active GTA 5 players. Its lower per-capita score kept it behind smaller but more intensely engaged markets.
GTA 6 is expected to be the biggest video game in history when it launches on November 19, with pre-orders already live and pricing higher than most standard game releases.
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Source: Khaleej Times