Australian Employers Brace for Absences as GTA VI Launches Nov. 19
Australian employers are preparing for absences when Grand Theft Auto VI unlocks at midnight on November 19. Payroll data shows leave bookings up 29 percent on last year, and the publisher's own chief executive expects sick calls. Economists say lost output is certain but small.
Australian employers are bracing for staff absences when Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19, 2026, and some bosses are giving workers the day off. One delivery driver in Melbourne put it simply: "gotta prioritise things."
The game is the first new instalment in 13 years of one of the best-selling entertainment franchises in history. Sony and Microsoft both said this week it is the most pre-ordered game ever in their digital stores.
Even the publisher expects empty desks. Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Rockstar Games owner Take-Two Interactive, told a conference in Las Vegas he thought "a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19."
The game unlocks at midnight in each country, starting in New Zealand. Australians will be among the first to play, and the launch night runs straight into a working Thursday.
What past launches show
Deputy, a Sydney-founded rostering app used by cafes, retailers and hospitality venues, studied recent blockbuster launches. It compared unworked rostered shifts on launch day with the same weekday over the previous three weeks.
When Overwatch 2 went on wide release on a Thursday in August 2023, 12.7 percent of shifts went unworked, up from a usual 6.55 percent. That is a jump of almost 94 percent.
In every launch Deputy studied, absenteeism also rose the day before release, as players cleared their schedules to download the game. "The real trap for businesses is the day-before download spike," said Deputy's chief technology officer, Ciaran Hale.
That spike may be smaller this time. Sony and Microsoft opened preloading more than a week early and urged players to download as soon as possible.
Leave bookings and lost output
Payroll data suggests many workers are planning ahead rather than faking illness. Employment Hero, which tracks more than 870,000 Australian workers, says leave booked for November 19 is up 29 percent on the same Thursday last year. Men aged 18 to 44 account for three-quarters of the rise.
Brendan Delacoe, 31, drives a truck for an op shop in Melbourne. As soon as pre-orders opened, he asked his manager for launch day and the day after, giving himself a four-day weekend.
"I just messaged it straight up, like, GTA's dropping, so there's no hiding it," he said. He has used up his annual leave, so the two days will probably be unpaid. The op shop can cover his shifts, he said.
PR consultant Eitan Soloducho estimates launch day could cost the Australian economy at least $70 million. His figure assumes one in 100 of the country's roughly 14 million workers takes a sickie to play.
Mark Wooden, a professor emeritus at the University of Melbourne's Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, said a hit to productivity is "certain." He expects it to be bigger than at any previous launch, though probably too small to show in national statistics.
Working from home is the big change since Grand Theft Auto V arrived in 2013. Many office staff can now appear to be working while they play. Wooden reckons the likeliest to put the game first are those whose hours have no direct link to output, such as admin and IT support staff, public servants and university lecturers.
Josh Gilbert, an eToro analyst, said the money Australians spend on the game would otherwise go to the pub or the cinema. "Australians have waited 13 years for a new Grand Theft Auto, so no managers should be too shocked if quite a few sickies get pulled next week," he said.
