GTA 6 leaks: what happened in 2022, 2023 and 2026, and how not to fall for a fake

On September 18, 2022, more than 90 videos from an early test build of GTA 6 appeared online. The next day Rockstar Games officially confirmed a "network intrusion": an unauthorized third party had downloaded confidential information, including early footage of the next GTA. The studio said work on the game would continue as planned. Take-Two reported the incident to the SEC and had the videos taken down en masse through copyright claims.

The hack was carried out by Arion Kurtaj, a member of the Lapsus$ hacking group. According to the press, he did it while under police supervision in a Travelodge hotel, using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, a smartphone and a keyboard. The damage to Rockstar was estimated at around $5 million.

On August 23, 2023, a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London found that Kurtaj had carried out all 12 acts he was charged with. Because of severe autism he was ruled unfit to stand trial, so the jury decided only whether he had done the acts. On December 21, 2023, the court gave him an indefinite hospital order: he is to stay in a secure psychiatric hospital for as long as doctors consider him dangerous. It is not a life prison sentence.

Rockstar had announced Trailer 1 for December 5, 2023. On the evening of December 4 (ET), an unofficial copy with a watermark appeared on X. Within half an hour Rockstar released the trailer officially, ahead of schedule, posting: "Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube".

From around mid-August 2026, more than a dozen gameplay clips appeared on social media. On August 26, the day before the official Extended Look, Rockstar called the leaks "heartbreaking for our team" and stressed that the game was "nearly there". On August 20 and 28, Take-Two filed subpoenas in federal court in the Southern District of New York seeking data from Microsoft (GitHub), Discord and X. As of the end of October, it is not known whether the leaker has been identified.

Fakes spread alongside real leaks. In November 2025, "gameplay" from one account turned out to be AI-generated, and in March 2026 the creator of a viral video featuring a bridge admitted it was fake. A few simple rules:

• Rockstar publishes official news on rockstargames.com/newswire and its own social media;
• "gameplay" with no source, odd physics or a blurry HUD is usually AI or GTA 5 mods;
• "leaked" APKs, "betas" and "early access" are always scams.

We deliberately do not publish leaked content: no footage, no names, no mechanics. It is a matter of respect for the developers and of staying on the right side of the law.