{"id":1721,"date":"2026-10-20T13:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/?p=1721"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:36:29","slug":"video-games-release-could-cost-us-economy-1b-in-lost-productivity-in-just-one-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/?p=1721","title":{"rendered":"Video game\u2019s release could cost US economy $1B in lost productivity in just one day"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is no game.<\/p>\n

The US economy could lose $1 billion in productivity in one day when the new\u00a0 \u201cGrand Theft Auto\u201d video game drops \u2013 as thousands call out sick and take vacation, experts said.<\/p>\n

Companies are bracing as a frenzy builds around \u201cGrand Theft Auto VI,\u201d the latest installment in one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, which is set for a Nov. 19 release, according to a report by Spanish broadcaster Cadena SER.<\/p>\n

Economic estimates predict as many as 1.5 million could be calling out on release day, according to the International Business Times.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A3<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
The U.S. economy could burn billions in lost output next month \u2014 with some estimates predicting over a million Americans will skip work to play GTA 6.<\/p>\n

Some workers even banked paid time off to spend launch day virtually in Vice City, the fictional Miami where the game takes place, with some companies even building the date into end-of-year packages as a perk, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is no game. The US economy could lose $1 billion in productivity in one day when the new\u00a0 \u201cGrand Theft Auto\u201d video game drops \u2013 as thousands call out sick and take vacation, experts said. Companies are bracing as a frenzy builds around \u201cGrand Theft Auto VI,\u201d the latest installment in one of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1723,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721\/revisions\/1723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}