What time does it unlock where you are
The date is 19 November 2026 and it is the only part of this that Rockstar has published. There is no announced unlock time, in any region, from anyone.
The two models
Local midnight. Each region unlocks as its own clock reaches midnight on 19 November 2026. New Zealand plays first, Hawaii last, and the game rolls around the planet across roughly a day. This is how most console releases have worked.
One global moment. Everybody unlocks at the same instant, taken here as the earliest local midnight, 11:00 UTC on 18 Nov. Under this model half the planet starts on the 18th: in Los Angeles the clock would read 03:00 on 18 Nov.
| Where | If local midnight | If one global moment |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific | ||
| Auckland | 00:00 local, which is 11:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 00:00 on 19 Nov |
| Sydney | 00:00 local, which is 13:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 22:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Asia | ||
| Tokyo and Seoul | 00:00 local, which is 15:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 20:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Shanghai and Singapore | 00:00 local, which is 16:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 19:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Delhi and Mumbai | 00:00 local, which is 18:30 UTC on 18 Nov | 16:30 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Dubai | 00:00 local, which is 20:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 15:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Europe | ||
| Moscow | 00:00 local, which is 21:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 14:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Istanbul | 00:00 local, which is 21:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 14:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Warsaw and Berlin | 00:00 local, which is 23:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 12:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Madrid and Paris | 00:00 local, which is 23:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 12:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| London and Dublin | 00:00 local, which is 00:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 11:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Africa | ||
| Lagos | 00:00 local, which is 23:00 UTC on 18 Nov | 12:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Americas | ||
| Sao Paulo | 00:00 local, which is 03:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 08:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| New York and Toronto | 00:00 local, which is 05:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 06:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Mexico City | 00:00 local, which is 06:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 05:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Chicago | 00:00 local, which is 06:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 05:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Denver | 00:00 local, which is 07:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 04:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Los Angeles | 00:00 local, which is 08:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 03:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
| Honolulu | 00:00 local, which is 10:00 UTC on 19 Nov | 01:00 on 18 Nov the day before |
What we will do on the day
This table gets checked against the storefronts on 17 November 2026, two days out, because storefront listings routinely disagree with each other and with the publisher. Whatever they say then replaces the models here, with the source and the time we read it.
Preload is a separate thing and it does have a date: 12 November 2026 for digital pre-orders, stated by Rockstar. What that means, and what is actually in the box, is in the editions and pre-orders explained.