GTA 6 day/night cycle is 3 times longer than GTA 5's: Leak
Fans calculated the cycle from Cyberleek gameplay leak showing GTA 6's in-game timer
Grand Theft Auto 6 players have worked out exactly how long a full in-game day lasts, and it's a significant departure from anything the series has done before.
As a result of the latest leaks of the game footage, it was found out that the day/night cycle of GTA 6 is three times as long as the day/night cycle of GTA 5.
This was revealed via the latest leak by Cyberleek, where Jason can be seen stealing two gas stations and capturing the clock that appears on the corner of the screen in-game.
A discussion on Reddit by user Miserable-Price-7484 revealed that six actual seconds corresponded to one minute of the game. Calculating the length of time for one day of 24 hours, this gives 144 minutes or two hours and 24 minutes.
This time is a drastic deviation from the usual trend set by the previous games in the series. GTA 5 had a day-night cycle lasting only 48 minutes, and similarly, Red Dead Redemption 2 operated with the same cycle.
With the 144-minute-long day/night cycle of GTA 6, we have a time frame thrice as long as its predecessors.
Critics have cited an oft-lamented shortcoming of GTA 5 and RDR2 – the fast day/night cycles that didn’t give players enough time to feel what an actual day looked like.
The longer day/night cycle could also provide space for more gradual changes in weather and environments that GTA 6 apparently wants to capitalise on.
Because this detail comes from an unreleased, leaked build rather than official Rockstar communication, there's no certainty the 144-minute figure will carry through to launch.
Rockstar could adjust the pacing before release, and it's possible the build Cyberleek has already differs from the current state of development. The ongoing leaks, which have grown to seven separate gameplay clips, have already triggered a real-world response: Take-Two's stock took a hit amid the fallout, and the company has issued subpoenas to Discord and Microsoft in an effort to identify who's behind Cyberleek.
