Grand Theft Auto VI might take you more than 80 hours to finish

Rob Nelson, the co-studio head at Rockstar North, has an 80-hour playthrough of Grand Theft Auto VI. That’s the number he gave Christopher Byrd in a new piece for The New York Times, and it covers the main story plus some optional goals.

Some. Not all.

So if you were planning on clearing November 19 and knocking this out over a long weekend, adjust accordingly. Nelson didn’t specify how many side quests he actually did on that run, which leaves the ceiling wide open.

What GTA V can tell you about the math

The useful comparison point is the last one. Based on How Long to Beat stats, most people took 51-and-a-half hours to finish Grand Theft Auto V’s main story and some side quests.

Completionists averaged 89-and-a-half hours. The longest logged time was 132 hours and 36 minutes on the PlayStation 5.

Line those up against Nelson’s 80 and the picture gets clearer. His playthrough already runs longer than the typical GTA V story-plus-extras run, and he wasn’t doing everything. If you’re the type who wants 100 percent on the franchise’s latest entry, keep those GTA V completionist numbers in your head.

The extended look is finally on YouTube

Rockstar has also just released an extended look at the upcoming game. It debuted exclusively on Netflix, and the studio has since uploaded the video to YouTube.

It runs almost 27 minutes. You get a glimpse of the fictional US state of Leonida, main characters Jason and Lucia and the activities available in their universe.

GTA VI will be available starting on November 19 for $80.

Don’t download the “demo”

Here’s the part worth taking seriously. There’s an ongoing cyber attack campaign encouraging fans to download a “demo” of the game. It isn’t a demo. It’s an infostealer that can access passwords from your browsers.

November 19 isn’t far off. Wait for the real thing rather than taking a chance on files from websites claiming to have early access to something Rockstar hasn’t handed out.

Eighty hours is a long time to spend somewhere. Better to spend it in Leonida than resetting every password you own.