Take-Two shares fell from $248.13 to $232.84 between 18 and 20 August as leaked GTA VI footage spread. The company has said nothing publicly. The extended look lands on 27 August.
Update, 21 August 2026. Take-Two has moved from takedowns to the courts. On 20 August it filed DMCA subpoena petitions in the Southern District of New York seeking records from Microsoft and Discord to identify whoever is behind the Cyberleek persona, with both given until 4 September to respond. Neither platform is accused of wrongdoing. The company still has not commented publicly on the breach, so its sworn court declaration is now the only thing it has said on the record.
Take-Two Interactive’s shares closed at $248.13 on 18 August, before leaked Grand Theft Auto VI footage began circulating, and had fallen to around $232.84 by 20 August, a drop of $15.29 a share and roughly $2.83 billion in market capitalisation in under two days. Reporting on the fall notes the company’s market cap remains above $43 billion, so the decline is a visible setback rather than a threat to the business. The stock had partly recovered by the time of writing.
Why this leak moved the price when 2022’s did not
When roughly 90 clips and source code leaked in September 2022, Strauss Zelnick called the incident frustrating and upsetting but said publicly that it had no measurable financial impact. Two things are different now. That leak came years before launch and consisted of unfinished pre-alpha material a publisher can distance itself from; GTA VI is scheduled for 19 November 2026, months away rather than years. And the timing collides with Rockstar’s own marketing: the extended look premieres on Netflix on 27 August at 3 p.m. ET, so the leaks arrived in the window Rockstar had reserved for its first controlled gameplay reveal.
What is actually confirmed, and what is not
Take-Two and Rockstar have issued no public statement about the breach. Both declined to comment when approached by NBC News, and neither has addressed the incident publicly. What can be observed is the takedown activity: footage has been removed from X and Reddit, and Take-Two has continued issuing DMCA claims, which several outlets read as an indication the material is genuine. That is inference from legal conduct, not confirmation, and we are labelling it as such until either company says otherwise. PlayTheory is not linking to, embedding, or describing the leaked material.
The leaker is running a crypto operation alongside the leaks
This is the part most coverage is underweighting. Cyberleek’s website polls visitors on which leak to release next and asks them to vote by sending donations in crypto, and its most recent video urged viewers to buy its token. The group’s manifesto demands an end to digital preorders, no fake single-player DLC, and offline fallback modes, and cites the Stop Killing Games movement, which has publicly condemned the leak as destructive. Community researchers analysing the material have concluded the token and donation polls are most likely a pump-and-dump using GTA VI hype, and advise sending no money. Whatever one thinks of the stated demands, a protest that monetises itself through a memecoin is asking to be read as something else.
What it means for 27 August
Rockstar now has to run its own reveal against footage its audience may already have seen, and the market has demonstrated it will price that disruption. The extended look is still the first material Rockstar has authorised, dated and controlled, and it remains the only version of GTA VI worth judging the game on. Our GTA VI hub carries every confirmed detail, dated.
Labelled: Confirmed for the share price movement and the absence of company comment. Likely for the footage’s authenticity, inferred from takedown activity. Unverified for any gameplay detail contained in the leaks, which PlayTheory is not reporting.