Best Buy leak sparks GTA 6 preorder rumors ahead of Take-Two call

A leaked Best Buy affiliate email sent GTA 6 fans into overdrive by pointing to a preorder campaign that could run from May 18 through May 21, with some reports saying the physical edition would carry a 5% discount. The email reportedly did not list a price, but that omission has not slowed the speculation, especially with the timing landing just before Take-Two Interactive Software’s next earnings call.

That call is scheduled for Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 8:30 p.m. UTC, or 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and it already sits on Take-Two’s investor relations calendar for the company’s Q4 and fiscal-year 2026 results. For GTA watchers, that makes the leaked Best Buy window look less like a random retail mistake and more like a possible marketing beat, even as Rockstar Games has not officially announced GTA 6 pre-orders.

The rumor has spread quickly across X and has been treated as potentially credible by outlets including IGN, Forbes and Metro after a long run of false alarms around the game. Some of the chatter has stretched beyond standard preorder talk, with speculation about Trailer 3 arriving beforehand, collector’s bundles, console packages and even early access for premium buyers. None of that is official, but the pattern is familiar to anyone who has followed Rockstar’s tightly managed rollout.

What is official is the game’s release date. Rockstar says Grand Theft Auto VI will launch on Thursday, November 19, 2026, after previously delaying it from an earlier target of May 26, 2026. Rockstar’s GTA VI page places Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos at the center of a criminal conspiracy across Leonida, including Vice City, keeping the focus on the story and setting while the rest of the fan base reads every retail breadcrumb like a teaser trailer.

Rockstar also released Trailer 2 on May 6, 2025, which only sharpened the habit of treating Take-Two earnings season and Rockstar marketing beats as possible windows for more information. For now, the Best Buy email is just that, a leak, not an announcement. But with May 18 hanging over the calendar and Take-Two’s call locked in for May 21, the timing alone has given the preorder rumor enough fuel to keep burning.