There is no doubt there are many waiting to see the 3rd preview trailer for Rockstar’s GTA6, but they have found a way to make you pay to watch this advertisement.
Rockstar has teamed up with Netflix to premiere their next GTA6 trailer. You will need to get a subscription to Netflix in order to watch this advertisement… temporarily.
The Netflix paywall is only a few hours long prior to the trailer being uploaded to YouTube and the Rockstar website. Netflix possibly paid $10’s of Millions to get first access and maybe higher video quality than what will be released elsewhere.
Why
If you have self control and lack a Netflix account you will still be able to watch the trailer on the same day on YouTube. Netflix is hoping you lack both of those things and become a new or returning subscriber.
I had to think about it a bit to wrap my head around how Rockstar thinks this will benefit their business. I think the angle here is reaching out to players who aren’t as tuned in as those who are reading this.
There have been many myself included who grew up with GTA and without intentionally being dialed into gaming likely wouldn’t know about the upcoming release. This will give Rockstar a chance to put GTA6 in front of the “normies” who haven’t thought about the game in over a decade.
There are few franchises who could pull this off, but it’s not surprising that it’s Rockstar to try this unorthodox advertising strategy. If the third season of your favorite show on Netflix just got canceled, the money has to come from somewhere.
Netflix is likley to gain more from the advertising they will get from people talking about how bonkers this is than they will gain from subscriptions with such a short exclusively. They must be seeing something here that I’m missing.
Thoughts
Only in 2026 would a game developer find a way to make you pay to watch their advertisement a few hours early… or at all. This seems pretty harmless but I’m not looking forward to seeing how other publishers use this model going forward.
I’m not surprised it’s Netflix partnering with Rockstar on this as they have been trying to find their way into gaming for years. This shows Netflix even after shutting down multiple projects this years is still committed to incorporating gaming on their platform.
What do you think about Rockstar putting up a paywall with Netflix to watch the GTA6 3rd trailer? Do you think Netflix will gain subscribers from this?
If we get more info I’ll let you know.
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