Summary

  • The GTA 6 trailer has reclaimed the record for the most-watched YouTube video in the first 24 hours post-release, with over 93 million views in that period.
  • The figure was briefly overshadowed by Discord's April Fools' joke about in-app loot boxes, which generated over 1.3 billion views by April 2.
  • However, Discord accidentally spoofed its own viewership figures, with YouTube now erasing most of that inflated view count.

The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer has recovered its record for the most-watched YouTube video in the first 24 hours post-release. Rockstar's GTA 6 reveal briefly lost that claim to fame due to an April Fools' joke that went sideways.

The gag in question was originally meant to add to Discord's carefree social media presence, with the chat app recently debuting a trailer announcing native loot boxes for its users. The stunt was even accompanied by the actual loot boxes, which are still available in the app as of April 6. And though many gaming companies joined in on the April Fools' fun, what made this particular joke stand out was that it generated some astonishing momentum, surpassing 1.3 billion views by April 2.

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Discord Overshadowed GTA 6 Trailer by Accidentally Spoofing Its YouTube Views

As of April 6, the vast majority of those views have been removed, with the video's current view count now sitting at a mere 3 million. The GTA 6 trailer has hence recovered its YouTube debut record, which once again stands at roughly 93 million views in 24 hours. As for what led to this temporary record-holder switch, it would appear that the chat app has spoofed its own YouTube views, albeit unintentionally.

As first reported by Marvin Wizz of DiscordPreviews, the April 1 loot box trailer has been pushed to users via the so-called Discord toast notification, which is non-intrusive by design. Not only does that make it more likely to be overlooked by users, but the notification video was actually made to play on a loop on top of that. This appears to have been done completely unintentionally, as suggested by one April 2 message from a verified Discord developer posted to the "discord-api" server, which saw them express their disbelief at the fact that the video was "getting so many views."

While spoofing views is technically a bannable offense on YouTube, the fact that this apparently wasn't a conscious attempt at gaming the system on Discord's part likely means that its channel is safe from sanctions. The company's PR team took all this in good fun, having described the situation as a "whoopsie doopsie" in an April 2 tweet.

Now that this view-botting mishap has been corrected, the GTA 6 trailer's launch day viewership record once again looks unassailable. The previous holder was MrBeast's Every Country On Earth Fights For $250,000 video, which managed to amass over 59 million views in the first 24 hours following its August 2023 debut. While there's always a chance that the next GTA 6 trailer will challenge the 93 million figure, that's far from guaranteed. Looking at the past 3D entries in the iconic franchise, their debut trailers generally enjoyed much stronger momentum than their immediate follow-ups.

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Grand Theft Auto 6
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Action
Adventure
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Systems
PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Released
November 19, 2026
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.

Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.

Developer(s)
Rockstar Games
Publisher(s)
Rockstar Games
Franchise
Grand Theft Auto
Genre(s)
Action, Adventure
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8 Images