The hype for GTA 6 has led fans down some excessively deep rabbit holes in an effort to predict the game’s marketing cycle, most recently when Trailer 3 will be released. This latest fan theory, though, comes direct from the stars.
GTA 6 is the most anticipated entertainment release, possibly of all time. Everything Rockstar Games has done has led to this, and it’s expected to be an earth-shattering success if the developer can meet its lofty expectations. Until its release, fans will be combing over every single screenshot and trailer that Rockstar puts out. So far, there isn’t much to go on, as Rockstar has only released two trailers and a handful of screenshots over the course of three years, but things are about to heat up.
Marketing for GTA 6 is expected to kick off this summer, based on comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. Now that window is fast approaching, fans are trying to predict the exact day we’ll get Trailer 3. To that end, Reddit user JalapenoPoppers24 has gone to extraordinary lengths to carve out a prediction by charting the planetary positions for every single Rockstar Games trailer released since 2007.
Really.
“I pulled the exact UTC timestamp of all 26 confirmed Rockstar reveal events from GTA IV onward (every trailer, every gameplay video, every launch trailer) and ran the geocentric ecliptic longitudes for all 9 classical bodies at each drop,” JalapenoPoppers24 said in their post, which has seen 2,200 upvotes.
“Pluto was in Sagittarius for 24 of the 26 drops. Neptune has been in Pisces for 19 of them. The Sun was in Libra, Scorpio, or Taurus 58% of the time when random would give you 25%. The Mercury-Sun conjunction (within 8°) showed up on eight of 26 drops which is a third of the sample for a configuration that occurs roughly 11% of the time in any given year.”
JalapenoPoppers24 went on to explain that they were able to use all of this data to deduce that GTA 6 Trailer 3 will arrive on May 14 at 11am EDT.
“I scored every day from May 1 through August 31, 2026 against the historical Rockstar fingerprint (Sun sign weight, Mercury sign weight, Saturn sign weight, Sun-Mercury conjunction, Mars-Saturn square, Thursday bonus),” the theorist continued, much to the shock of others winthin the community.
“The single highest-scoring date in the entire 123-day window is Thursday, May 14, 2026, 12 out of 16 points. Sun in Taurus 23°, Mercury conjunct Sun within 4°, Saturn in Aries, Venus in Leo, Thursday (the day of 12 of 26 historical drops). It’s also exactly one week and one day after the GTA 6 Trailer 2 anniversary, AND it falls on the same calendar day (the 14th) as GTA V Trailer 2 which Rockstar pushed from Nov 2 to Nov 14 in 2012. The 14 isn’t a coincidence. Setting a calendar reminder. If T3 drops on May 14 at 11am EDT I want to be remembered.”
This remarkable, perhaps slightly demented level of research was received warmly by most GTA fans, many of whom praised JalapenoPoppers24 for the effort, even if it probably won’t amount to anything. “Potentially the least deranged post we’ve had in months,” one person said. “Hey, buddy. Get me tomorrow night’s Powerball number. Please!” another pleaded. “What the GTA 6 waiting can do to a man,” another laughed.
This isn’t the first time GTA players looked to the stars for clues. Back in 2023, fans used lunar phases to try and predict the GTA 6 Trailer 1 release date. Against the odds, this did actually yield some results. One of the predictions aligned with the day GTA 6’s first trailer was announced, however subsquent predictions using this theory were incorrect. Is Rockstar secretly communicating to us through the starry skies? It seems like a stretch to assume that would be true of every single marketing beat, but stranger things have happened.
While we wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on GTA 6 to fuss over, including more predictions on its price, and Zelnick’s explanation for why there’s no PC version on day one. After a series of delays. GTA 6 is set to launch on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
