GTA VI's extended look topped Netflix's movie chart despite only a six-hour exclusivity window

Netflix's Tudum-published top 10 movie ranking for August 24 through August 30 was topped not by a film, but by a gameplay preview — the extended look at Grand Theft Auto VI. The nearly 30-minute video offers an in-depth glimpse of the long-anticipated title, which is set to release in November.

Under Netflix's arrangement with developer Rockstar, the streaming service held exclusive rights to the video for just six hours on August 27, after which Rockstar uploaded the same extended trailer to its own YouTube channel. Despite that narrow exclusivity window, the video racked up 31.1 million views on Netflix and claimed the top spot in the platform's movie rankings across 58 countries.

Once the exclusivity period ended, Rockstar's YouTube upload of the extended look has since gathered more than 17.7 million views on its own. As Variety pointed out, the two platforms measure views differently: YouTube counts a view the moment a video starts playing, while Netflix counts a single complete viewing per movie regardless of how many times it's replayed within one household. Under that stricter counting method, the Netflix figure points to an especially strong wave of interest as soon as the video went live.

What the preview shows

The extended look is built from in-game footage captured on the PlayStation 5 version of GTA VI. It highlights changes to combat, how the game's universe has been expanded, the ability to switch between the main playable characters, and various side activities available to players.

Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled to launch on November 19, and completing its main story is expected to take up to 80 hours or more.