Millions of people, one 212GB game: how GTA VI gets to everyone without breaking the internet

On 19 November, Rockstar releases Grand Theft Auto VI on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. There's no disc: even boxed copies contain a download code, so every player has to download the game.

Rockstar says it needs up to 212GB of space, depending on the console. ISPreview worked out that a 210GB download takes nearly five hours on a 100Mbps line with nothing else using it, or about 28 minutes on a 1Gbps line.

Multiply that by millions of players and you have one of the biggest downloads UK broadband has ever carried. Here's how the industry spreads the load, and what's happened so far.

A quick picture of how a download travels

Think of the internet as a road network. Your connection is your driveway. Your broadband provider (your ISP) runs the local and main roads. The game starts out in a distant warehouse.

If every player drove to that warehouse at once, the roads would jam. Everything below is a way of avoiding that, either by spreading out when people travel or by moving the goods closer to them.

Trick one: download early (pre-loading)

Pre-loading lets people who've bought the game digitally download it before launch day, ready to unlock at midnight.

For GTA VI, pre-loading opened on 10 November, nine days before launch and two days earlier than first planned. Sony said GTA VI is the most pre-ordered game in the PlayStation Store's history and "strongly" advised players to pre-load as soon as possible. It is also unlocking the game at midnight country by country, starting in New Zealand, rather than everywhere at once.

That doesn't make the traffic disappear. It turns one enormous spike into a busy week.

Trick two: keep copies close by (CDNs and edge caches)

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers, run by companies such as Akamai or Amazon, that keeps copies of popular files in lots of places, so each person downloads from a copy near them. The nearest copy is often called an edge cache, because it sits at the edge of the network, close to users.

In road terms, the game sits in local depots instead of one central warehouse. Some depots are even inside the ISP's own network: Akamai runs a programme that places its servers in network operators' buildings, and Microsoft gives ISPs free caching software for its downloads. The first person in an area pulls the file from far away; everyone after them gets the local copy.

Trick three: direct connections (peering)

Peering is when two networks connect directly to swap traffic, rather than paying a third party to carry it. Much of this happens at internet exchanges such as LINX and LONAP in London, where hundreds of networks plug into each other.

Squirrel Internet told ISPreview it has direct 100G fibre links to "the likes of Amazon, Akamai and Microsoft – which generally serve content such as game downloads on behalf of publishers", plus connections at LINX and LONAP so it can add capacity. It expects launch-day traffic to rise by around 30% and is keeping capacity at twice its normal daily peak.

Trick four: slow the big downloads, not everything else

When room runs short, networks can deliberately slow the biggest downloads so everything else keeps flowing. This is traffic management, sometimes called traffic shaping.

It has been done before. In March 2020, as lockdown pushed internet use up, Akamai said it was working with Microsoft and Sony to manage game downloads at peak times, and Sony warned players they "may experience somewhat slower or delayed game downloads".

What's happened so far

• Virgin Media O2 said 10 November, the first day of pre-loading, was the busiest ever on its broadband network: peak traffic was 3.8% above the previous record and the day's total was 4% above it. Its chief technology officer, Jeanie York, said: "We've been preparing our network for the demand that comes with a launch of this scale."

• YouFibre told customers about "a network capacity issue… due to the high demand of GTA 6 downloads". ISPreview reports it fixed this with "emergency traffic management to spread the load".

• Openreach, which runs most of the UK's broadband lines, said in October: "Our network and teams are ready, and GTA 6 is certainly one we'll be watching for a new download record."

• Gigaclear is temporarily boosting speeds for more than 175,000 rural customers.

We haven't seen GTA VI statements from BT/EE, Sky, TalkTalk or Vodafone UK. When BT/EE reported record gaming traffic for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 2024, the biggest spike came on the first day of pre-loading, not launch day.

Frequently asked questions

Will GTA VI slow down my broadband?

Probably not much. Most providers have planned for it, and any slowdown is most likely at busy evening times or on providers with less spare capacity.

How big is the GTA VI download?

Rockstar says it needs up to 212GB of space, depending on the console. The widely shared 210GB figure came from a leak before Rockstar confirmed the size.

When does GTA VI unlock?

On 19 November. On PlayStation it unlocks at midnight local time, country by country, starting in New Zealand. Pre-loading has been open since 10 November.

If you ever want a second opinion on your own office connection, we're happy to have a chat.