Published: May 14, 2026 
It looks like Best Buy may have just spilled one of the biggest secrets in gaming right now. A promotional email meant only for affiliate partners got out, and now the entire GTA 6 community is getting hyped up because of it. Here's what we know so far about how Best Buy leaked the GTA 6 pre-order dates.
How Did Best Buy Leak the GTA 6 Pre-Order Dates?
The email reportedly described a "GTA 6 Pre-Order (Physical Game)" campaign running from May 18 to May 21, 2026, with a 5% online sale commission for affiliates. That last part is quite important. This actually wasn't a marketing email sent to regular customers. It went to Best Buy's affiliate partners.
YouTuber and streamer Frogboyx1Gaming was among the first to go public with it, showing the email live on stream and refreshing his inbox in real time to prove it wasn't a screenshot. After that, the floodgates opened.
How Many People Got This Email and Should You Trust It?
This is where it gets hard to dismiss. It wasn't just one person who got this email. Several affiliated users posted creenshots and videos showing they received the same email. Gaming deal trackers, streamers, and users on Reddit, GTAForums, and ResetEra also said they got it on their own.
One user on GTAForums even said the email had to be manually created through their affiliate platform, which made people think it was less likely to be a mistake or something fake.
Should you trust this latest news? Well, not fully, but it's worth taking seriously. The bigger question is whether this reflects Rockstar's actual plan or whether it's an internal mistake, possibly created by a Best Buy employee.
One thing that people noticed is actually the branding in the email. It uses "GTA 6" rather than the official "Grand Theft Auto VI" name that Rockstar has used in every piece of marketing so far. That's a small but noticeable inconsistency. No price is listed in the email either. Estimates for GTA 6's launch price have ranged from $70 to $100, but nothing has been confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two.
The Pieces Are Starting to Add Up
Even without the email, the timing fits what's been building for weeks. Take-Two's earnings call is on May 21, and that's usually when big announcements happen. If a delay were coming, that's also where we'd hear about it.
Worth noting, fans convinced themselves Trailer 3 was dropping on May 12 because of a pattern they spotted with the 2025 earnings call. It never happened, though. You can read the full story about what actually happened with the Trailer 3 rumor and Game Informer mix-up.
The difference this time is that the Best Buy leak isn't a fan theory. It's a named campaign in a retailer's affiliate system. If pre-orders open May 18, a new trailer dropping around the same time would make a lot of sense. The Rockstar website also briefly went down on May 11, which added more fuel to the fire. Nothing confirmed, but the signs are really starting to add up.
Rockstar hasn't said a word, and Best Buy hasn't acknowledged anything. However, this is one of the more believable pre-order leaks the community has seen. Keep an eye on Rockstar's official channels and major retailers. When it happens, you will know.
