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This is no game.
The US economy could lose $1 billion in productivity in one day when the new “Grand Theft Auto” video game drops – as thousands call out sick and take vacation, experts said.
Companies are bracing as a frenzy builds around “Grand Theft Auto VI,” the latest installment in one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, which is set for a Nov. 19 release, according to a report by Spanish broadcaster Cadena SER.
Economic estimates predict as many as 1.5 million could be calling out on release day, according to the International Business Times.
Some workers even banked paid time off to spend launch day virtually in Vice City, the fictional Miami where the game takes place, with some companies even building the date into end-of-year packages as a perk, the Wall Street Journal reported.
At least one company is expected to have a good day though.
Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, expects more than $1 billion in operating cash flow this fiscal year with the release of “GTA VI” leading the way.
One estimate already projects that the company has raked in nearly $600 million in revenue from preorders, according to SensorTower’s GTA preorder tracker.
The last installment in the series, “Grand Theft Auto V,” had gamers ditching their desks too when it first dropped in 2013.
At the time, an IGN survey of nearly 11,000 of its readers found that 46% said they had already taken the day off and another nearly 20% said they’d planned to call in sick that morning.
On its release weekend, 6% of the population between 18 and 35 missed work in New York City and Los Angeles, according to Cadena SER.
When the final “Harry Potter” movie hit US theaters in July 2011, a whopping 5% of American employees missed work that day, the outlet reported.
Marvel fans were no better, and had moviegoers blowing off work in droves to see “Avengers: Endgame” during its 2019 opening weekend, costing the US nearly $3 billion in lost productivity, the outlet reported — roughly three times what Grand Theft Auto VI is projected to cost the economy.
