The announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6 was such a big deal that it managed to get more likes on Twitter than the Avengers: Endgame trailer. The news that Grand Theft Auto 6 really does exist in an official capacity wasn't particularly shocking, but it was refreshing. Rockstar has spent the last eight years largely avoiding acknowledging the idea of another Grand Theft Auto game. Of course, the developer has been busy with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, but that focus has shifted to the thing people have been asking about the most.
On February 4, Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6 is in development out of the blue. Rockstar didn't elaborate much on what that means, but did say development is "well underway," suggesting it has been in the works for quite a while. Details regarding the story, gameplay, and location are being kept secret for the time being, but many are hoping that Rockstar has broken their silence because they're getting ready to properly reveal the game sooner rather than later. There's been heavy speculation that a trailer could release later this year, but there's been no suggestion of that from Rockstar.
Nonetheless, Rockstar's very general announcement made massive waves. Rockstar's tweet announcing GTA 6 has received over 556,000 likes on Twitter at the time of writing. To put that in perspective, the second and final full-length trailer for Avengers Endgame, the second highest-grossing film of all time, has 325k likes on Marvel Studios' Twitter account. The first trailer for Endgame has 597k likes, and with Rockstar's tweet still rising in traffic, there's still a chance that it could be outpaced too.
With many expecting GTA 6 to release around 2024 or 2025, if not sooner, a lot of anticipation will have built up between GTA 5 and 6 by the time it launches. It's highly likely the actual trailer and other official details for the game will cause an even bigger splash. If just a couple of paragraphs confirming something a lot of people already assumed managed to drum up this much excitement, imagine what the first look at gameplay or even just a logo will do.
Since Rockstar was able to attract so much attention from this random news drop, people probably shouldn't expect the first trailer to arrive during an event like E3. Rockstar will likely drop the trailer with a similar lack of fanfare, isolated from any big events or news, so it can have the spotlight to itself. Despite some rumors of other games, it's believed that GTA 6 is Rockstar's only game in development, so it should be the developer's main focus for the foreseeable future.