GTA 6 will take over a day to download for some UK gamers – Experts expect
Grand Theft Auto VI’s digital-only nature could be a problem for UK gamers with poor internet connections
Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) will be a digital-only game. Yes, the game will be sold in a box through retailers, but that box will only contain a game code. No disc, no offline install option. This could be a huge problem for UK gamers with below-average internet speeds. The UK broadband analysis firm Uswitch has estimated that GTA 6 could take more than a day to download on slower internet connections.
Uswitch has predicted that GTA 6 will have an install size of around 120GB, making it only slightly larger than GTA V. That means that gamers stuck on old ADSL connections (which are around 10 Mbps) will need to download the game for more than 26 hours. Thankfully, the UK’s average broadband speed is much higher than that, at 170.2 Mbps, which would complete the same download in a little more than an hour and 30 minutes.
Expected download times
Below is a list of download times for Uswitch’s expected Grand Theft Auto 6 download size. Note that the download times below assume no server-based interruptions and that download servers can saturate your internet connection. Remember that GTA 6 could have a much larger, or perhaps lower, download size. Uswitch’s 120GB download size is just an estimate.
| Download Speed | Estimated Download Time (120GB Download) |
| 10 Mbps | 1 day 2 hours 40 minutes |
| 30 Mbps | 8 hours 53 minutes 20 seconds |
| 67 Mbps | 3 hours 58 minutes 48 seconds |
| 150 Mbps | 1 hour 46 minutes 40 seconds |
| 170.2 Mbps (UK National Average) |
1 hour 34 minutes |
| 250 Mbps | 1 hour 4 minutes |
| 500 Mbps | 32 minutes |
| 900 Mbps | 17 minutes 46 seconds |
| 1600 Mbps | 10 minutes seconds |
(How long a download will take at certain internet speeds – data from USwitch download time calculator)
Gaming’s all-digital future presents problems for gamers with bad internet connections
Earlier today, Sony confirmed that it plans to stop releasing new PlayStation game discs in 2028. The future of gaming is clearly all-digital. Physical game discs are going away. Digital has won, and that could be bad news for gamers with bad internet connections.
While gamers with fast internet connections can download many new games in minutes, gamers with slower connections will suffer long waits. Thankfully, Grand Theft Auto VI will be available to pre-load for roughly a week ahead of the game’s release. That should be plenty of time for gamers to prepare for the game’s launch. Even so, for gamers without access to faster internet connections, the digital-only gaming future will be a problem. That’s especially true for games that are frequently updated.
Max Beckett, a broadband expert at Uswitch, had this to say about next-gen game sizes: “If GTA VI is digital-only, download speed will be a major factor in how quickly players can start playing.”
You can join the discussion on GTA 6’s expected download speeds on the OC3D Forums.
