With only six hours of exclusivity before it hit YouTube, Netflix’s “Grand Theft Auto 6” extended look became the streamer’s most-viewed title last week.
Between its release on Thursday, Aug. 27 at 3 p.m. ET and Sunday, Aug. 30 (the end of Netflix’s viewing window for its weekly Top 10 rankings) the 27-minute “GTA 6” special drew 31.1 million views.
The extended look at the highly anticipated Rockstar Games title, which marks an entirely new category of entertainment for Netflix, was classified under the English-language film list for the week. It was No. 1 on that list in 87 of 93 countries that Netflix tracks globally.
For comparison, the “Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look” viewed has topped 17 million views on YouTube, as of the time of publication Tuesday. The video was posted to YouTube by Rockstar Games at 9 p.m. ET last Thursday, following its exclusive debut earlier that day on Netflix.
It should be noted here that YouTube and Netflix count views very differently. Netflix defines a view as the total hours viewed for a title divided by its runtime, meaning one household watching a program twice would be counted only once. On YouTube, a view is counted as soon as any video (whether its a short, a repeat viewing or partial plays) starts to play.
The “Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look” content was captured entirely from in-game footage on PlayStation 5 (the game will be released for PS5 and Xbox Series X and S on Nov. 19), per Netflix and Take-Two Interactive-owned publisher Rockstar. It marks the lengthiest look fans have gotten at “GTA 6” thus far, following two trailers released over the past three years.
The special features “GTA 6” protagonists Jason and Lucia in both cinematic and gameplay scenes throughout the fictional Vice City, and teases the overall narrative of the game.
Coming in at a distant second on the Top 10 English-language movies list was “The Whisper Man” with 23.2 million views.
On the TV side, the documentary “Death of the Pastor’s Wife” was No. 1 with 19 million views, while the third season of Tyler Perry’s “Beauty in Black” was runnerup with 13 million views.
See the full Netflix Top 10 rankings for the week here.
