GTA 6 speculation mutates into delay 'rumor,' leading to anxious fans and a prediction market betting frenzy for no good reason

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Someone made a speculative remark on a podcast and within a couple days it had somehow morphed into a big scary "rumor," in this case that another Grand Theft Auto 6 delay is incoming, despite there being no new information on the topic one way or another.

Today's game of internet telephone started when Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier said on a recent episode of The Ringer's Button Mash podcast that GTA 6 might follow the same delay pattern as Red Dead Redemption 2, which was delayed twice before release. If it does turn out that way, GTA 6's current November 19, 2026 console release date will be its actual release date, because it's already been delayed twice, but a news outlet misinterpreted the comment as a prediction of another delay.

It's impossible to overstate how stupid this is

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-01-09T02:17:01.208Z

That temporary misunderstanding (the RPS article in question has since been updated) was not a huge deal from my perspective, but whether it was the trigger or something else was, the internet ultimately managed to twist that bit of podcast chit-chat into a great prophecy. A Screenrant headline currently claims "GTA 6 Third Delay Has Gamers Kissing Goodbye To Their November Dreams" despite no such delay having been announced, or even 'rumored' in any meaningful way. Social media platforms and the GTA 6 subreddit have of course also been vibrating with debate over the veracity of the supposed rumor.

It's a whole lot of fuss over nothing. The only nugget of insider information in play is Schreier commenting: "The last I heard, [GTA 6] was still not content complete."

Unless the arrow of time has inexplicably turned itself around, GTA 6 would also not have been content complete when the last delay was announced a couple months ago, so that information doesn't tell us a lot about the possibility of another delay, and Schreier didn't claim that it did. He said on the podcast that it's "hard to say" whether or not GTA 6 will make its current November 2026 release date, but that it "feels a little bit more real than fall 2025 did."

That's it! Despite there being nothing here but a bit of casual conversation and the observation that all unreleased games exist in a state of maybe being delayed and maybe not being delayed, Schreier pointed out that bets on a third GTA 6 delay spiked today on prediction market Polymarket.

"It's impossible to overstate how stupid this is," the reporter wrote. Agreed!

My prediction is that, whether GTA 6 is delayed again or not, something like this will probably happen a couple more times this year. There is no game more anticipated than GTA 6, not just by prospective players, but by the industry as a whole—and, apparently, by the entire stock market and the online gambling sphere that surrounds it. Even the tiniest hints of insider information are going to be blown out of proportion.