Some people are booking holidays, others are preparing their consoles, and a few businesses have decided that November 19 is going to be a very different working day.

GTA 6 hasn’t even launched yet, but its arrival is already having an unusual effect on workplaces, employee schedules and internet networks around the world.

The numbers coming out of the US and UK give an idea of the scale. A PCMag survey conducted with YouGov estimates that around 12.5 million American gamers plan to take paid leave or change their work and school schedules to play GTA 6.

That’s based on a survey of 1,154 US adults who identified as gamers, rather than confirmed holiday applications from millions of employees.

The UK has its own GTA 6 holiday rush. HR company BrightHR examined absence records covering more than 1.2 million employees across 70,000 businesses.

Its findings suggest that approximately 83,000 days of leave have been booked for GTA 6 across November and December, with an estimated cost of £12.4 million to employers. Around £3.14 million of that figure relates to November 19 alone.

A separate estimate puts the potential US productivity impact at around $1 billion.

That figure has been widely circulated, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for a confirmed economic loss.

The number of people planning to adjust their schedules doesn’t automatically translate into lost output, particularly when many will be using paid annual leave.

Some Companies Are Letting Employees Play GTA 6

Not every employer is worried about employees disappearing on launch day. Logitech has taken a rather different approach.

The company introduced a benefit called Logi Game Day, giving approximately 7,000 employees worldwide an additional day off to play video games.

The day can be used any time before November 2027, so staff aren’t required to take November 19 off.

However, Logitech has made it clear that employees who choose to spend the day exploring Vice City won’t face any complaints.

The company is also planning a gaming livestream at its headquarters on GTA 6 launch day. Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber has spoken positively about gaming and its potential benefits for employees.

Fortune reported on the initiative, which is an interesting move from a company that makes gaming equipment.

Car tuning business Burger Motorsports has taken things further.

The company announced a temporary company-wide operational pause for November 19, warning customers that departments including customer support, shipping and order processing could experience delays.

Its announcement even joked that normal operations would resume once employees had finished their initial exploration of the game. TechRadar covered the unusual announcement.

There is also a similar story from Russia. Benza, a company that manufactures equipment for gas stations, reportedly offered its roughly 240 employees an extra day off to play GTA 6.

There was one unusual condition: workers had to prove they owned a console and the game to qualify. The offer was reported by Meduza.

Even the US Army Has a GTA 6 Incentive

One of the stranger stories involves the US military. The 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion, based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, reportedly offered soldiers four additional days off around the game’s release if they agreed to reenlist.

The offer was reported by the Associated Press in August.

According to the report, the incentive was designed to encourage soldiers to extend their military commitments by offering something many of them would genuinely appreciate, time to play GTA 6. Read the Associated Press report.

It’s a pretty unusual recruitment incentive, even by gaming standards.

While companies are dealing with potential employee absences, this Army unit has found a way to turn the excitement around GTA 6 into a reason for soldiers to stay.

GTA 6 Preloads Are Putting Internet Networks Under Pressure

The impact isn’t limited to workplaces. The game’s enormous preload has already caused major spikes in internet traffic, with players downloading more than 200GB of data before launch.

In the UK, Virgin Media O2 reported that November 10 became the busiest day in its broadband network’s history for both peak traffic and total daily data volume.

Daily downloads exceeded the previous record, set following Fortnite’s Chapter 7 Mini Season launch, by 4%.

Peak traffic also surpassed the previous record associated with an Arsenal versus Atlético Madrid Champions League match by 3.8%.

The first hour of GTA 6 preloading alone produced a 51.6% increase in broadband traffic compared with the same period the previous week. Virgin Media O2 published the figures in its official announcement.

Germany has seen a similarly impressive jump. Internet providers 1&1 and Vodafone reported substantial increases in connections to PlayStation Network and Xbox services as preloads began.

According to Push Square’s report, 1&1 recorded connections around ten times higher than usual during the night of November 9–10.

Sweden and Denmark have also reported significant increases, with other European providers seeing similar demand.

The US has not been left out either, with internet provider Spectrum promoting temporary speed upgrades to help customers download the game.

These are more than just a few busy download servers. GTA 6’s preload has pushed broadband networks into record territory before players have even been allowed to start the game.

GTA 6 Is Becoming More Than a Gaming Event

There is still a difference between the attention surrounding GTA 6 and its measurable economic impact.

The $1 billion US productivity figure is an estimate, the UK leave numbers come from HR data, and the internet traffic records are actual figures reported by network providers. They shouldn’t all be treated as equivalent evidence.

But the examples tell an interesting story.

Employees are arranging their holidays around a video game, companies are adjusting their operations, Logitech is giving staff a gaming benefit, and broadband providers are dealing with extraordinary download demand.

November 19 could be a strange day for businesses with large numbers of GTA fans on their payroll.

For everyone else, it may simply be the day when a lot of people suddenly become unavailable.

After more than a decade since GTA 5, Rockstar’s next release is already making its presence felt well beyond the gaming industry.