The long-awaited release of the video game GTA 6, scheduled for Thursday, November 19, is already having a noticeable impact on work schedules: employees across the UK are mass-filing for annual leave to play from the very first minute of release. According to the HR platform BrightHR, which covers over 1.2 million workers in 70,000 British companies, GTA 6 accounts for nearly 5 percent of all reasons cited by employees for leave on November 19.

Time Off for Gaming Overtakes Weddings and Honeymoons

BrightHR analysts calculated that twice as many people took time off for the game as for a honeymoon (0.46% versus 0.18%). GTA 6 also surpassed graduations (0.19%) and trips to Disneyland (0.06%). In total, during November and December, employees have booked about 83,000 days of leave due to the game, which will cost British employers approximately 12.4 million pounds sterling, with 3.14 million falling on the release day alone. According to the platform, one fan even took a full two-week vacation to complete the story.

Statistics and Employee Comments

Compared to the previous Thursday, November 12, the number of requests for a day off on November 19 increased by 7.89 percent, while last year the increase on the same dates was only 2.51 percent. In their applications, employees do not hide their intentions, leaving comments like "GTA week on the couch in my underwear" or "GTA day, game on, losers." BrightHR CEO Alan Price urges managers to treat this with understanding: according to him, taking time off for a video game is as legitimate a right to rest as going to a football match or a concert, provided it does not paralyze the team's work.

Logitech Introduces First Corporate Gaming Day

Against the backdrop of the global anticipation of the release, the IT company Logitech announced the introduction of Logi Game Day — the first-ever corporate day off designated specifically for video games. Management relies on its own research: 81 percent of gamers experience less anxiety and higher confidence at work, while 98.8 percent of surveyed IT professionals confirmed that gaming skills help with strategic thinking and working under pressure. On the day of the GTA 6 release, November 19, the Logitech G gaming division will hold a live stream from its American headquarters in San Jose.

What This Means for Teams and Employers

Logitech G General Manager Robin Piispanen noted that joint immersion in games like GTA 6, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, or Forza brings a team together, while Chief People Officer Elaine Laird emphasized that gaming helps employees reset and "find fresh solutions for complex work tasks." Thus, a new corporate trend is forming around the release of GTA 6: gaming leisure is ceasing to be a personal matter and is turning into a tool for team management and load reduction.