GTA 6 Trailer 3 Rumors Spiral Again as Fans Lock Onto May Dates and Pre-Order Leaks

Another week has passed without a third trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, but that hasn’t slowed down the speculation around Rockstar’s next move. Fans spent days circling May 12 and May 15 as possible reveal dates, only for both to come and go without any announcement. Even with that disappointment, the conversation around the game has only gotten louder, especially after the leaked Best Buy email that claimed pre-orders would begin on May 18.

That leak continues to be one of the biggest talking points surrounding the game right now because it still feels like one of the few pieces of information that carries some weight. The idea of pre-orders going live without a new trailer attached to them just doesn’t seem believable to many people following the situation closely. 

Rockstar has historically tied marketing beats together, and when you look back at the pre-order trailers for Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V, both landed on Mondays rather than the Tuesday or Thursday pattern fans usually associate with Rockstar releases.

Fans can't wait to watch GTA 6 third trailer, and that’s why May 18 keeps sticking around as one of the more believable dates. The expectation is that if pre-orders really do open, then Rockstar would likely want a fresh trailer sitting alongside them, complete with pricing details and the usual “pre-order now” push.

Missing that kind of marketing moment would feel strange for a game this massive.

At the same time, the constant stream of theories has become part of the fun for many fans. The buildup itself has turned into an event. Every rumor, insider claim, and leaked email feeds into the atmosphere surrounding GTA 6, and the community has embraced that cycle even when predictions end up being wrong.

A lot of the latest speculation comes from discussions around a rumored PlayStation State of Play event. Some insiders claimed Sony could hold the presentation on May 24 and that GTA 6 trailer 3 might appear there. That theory immediately started spreading online, although there are still major doubts about whether the event is even happening on that date in the first place.

The timeline doesn’t fully add up. Summer Game Fest is scheduled for June 5 and Xbox’s showcase follows shortly after. Last year, Sony held its State of Play two days before Summer Game Fest, which would point more toward June 3 this year instead of May 24. On top of that, May 24 falls on a weekend, and PlayStation rarely schedules major presentations on Sundays.

Even if Sony does hold a State of Play, there’s still skepticism around GTA 6 appearing there at all. 

The argument against it is pretty simple: Rockstar does not need another company’s showcase to promote GTA 6. State of Play events are designed to draw attention toward PlayStation’s lineup, but a GTA 6 trailer would completely dominate the conversation and overshadow every other game shown during the presentation.

That becomes even more obvious when rumored titles like a new God of War project and more footage from Marvel's Wolverine are reportedly part of Sony’s future plans. If GTA 6 appeared during the same show, most of the attention would immediately shift away from everything else.

There’s also the question of whether Rockstar would even allow another company to debut one of its trailers. Comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in past interviews have reinforced the idea that Rockstar prefers to handle its own announcements directly. That makes the idea of handing trailer 3 over to Sony feel unlikely.

Still, the rumors continue because there’s a growing feeling that something has to happen soon.

The game is reportedly about six months away from release, and Rockstar has remained almost completely silent outside of the first two trailers. Fans keep pointing toward Take-Two’s earnings calls and Rockstar’s previous marketing timelines as signs that the company is getting ready to ramp things up.

Another possibility floating around is that pre-orders could still open on May 18 without a full trailer attached. Some believe Rockstar could release new screenshots or smaller promotional material first before dropping trailer 3 later. It’s not the most popular theory, but it remains possible considering how unpredictable Rockstar has been throughout GTA 6’s marketing cycle.

That unpredictability has become one of the biggest talking points surrounding the game. Rockstar’s silence itself is now being treated like a marketing strategy. The company barely says anything publicly, yet GTA 6 continues dominating online conversations anyway.

Part of that discussion recently shifted toward pricing after a new survey from First Look polled gamers in the US and UK about how much they expect GTA 6 to cost. The average expected price landed around $78 in the United States and £76 in the UK, showing that many players are already preparing for prices above the current $70 standard.

The more divisive part came when participants were asked whether $100 would be a fair price for the game. Nearly 60 percent thought that was too expensive, while around 40 percent felt it would still be acceptable. That split highlights how differently people view GTA 6 compared to a normal game release.

For many players, GTA 6 feels like its own category entirely. 

Some people openly admit they would pay premium prices for the game no matter what because of Rockstar’s reputation and the scale of the project. Others argue that even if GTA 6 can justify a higher price, it could create a bad precedent for the rest of the industry moving forward.

There’s also the reality that even a small increase would massively impact Rockstar’s revenue. Grand Theft Auto V has sold over 250 million copies, meaning an extra $10 per copy on GTA 6 would translate into billions of additional dollars. That’s before even considering the eventual return of GTA Online and its microtransactions.

At the same time, many players still feel Rockstar doesn’t necessarily need to raise the base price because the company will likely make enormous amounts of money through GTA Online anyway. Somewhere around $80 has become the number many fans see as the likely middle ground, expensive enough to reflect the scale of the game but not so high that it completely shocks the market.

The bigger discussion, though, continues to revolve around just how powerful GTA 6’s presence already is despite Rockstar barely marketing it. New data from Screen Share, a partnership between Screen Engine and The Wrap, tracked the most talked-about entertainment projects during the first week of May. Movies dominated most of the list, including projects like The Mandalorian and Grogu, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Avengers: Doomsday, and Mortal Kombat 2.

Right in the middle of those heavily promoted movie campaigns sat GTA 6.

That’s what makes the numbers so unusual. Every film higher on the list currently has active marketing campaigns running with TV spots, press tours, trailers, and promotional events. GTA 6 has none of that right now. No new trailer this year, no pre-orders officially announced, no press events, and no major advertising push. Yet it still managed to become one of the most discussed entertainment releases overall.

That’s led to a growing belief that the GTA community itself is doing a huge portion of the marketing work. Reddit theories, leaked emails, speculation videos, social media debates, and endless trailer predictions are all helping keep the game constantly trending online. Even the frustration surrounding fake dates and incorrect rumors feeds into the momentum.

For Rockstar, that kind of attention is almost impossible to manufacture intentionally. The company has somehow created a situation where silence alone keeps GTA 6 at the center of gaming conversations every single week.

Because of that, expectations for trailer 3 continue getting bigger with every passing month. Whether it arrives in May, June, or later in the year, the anticipation around it has reached a level that very few games in history have ever experienced. Every rumor and every missed date only seems to increase the pressure surrounding Rockstar’s eventual reveal.