"What's All the Fuss About This Game?" ... U.S. Faces $1 Billion Loss as 1.5 Million Workers Call In Sick

Young employees expected to take time off en masse
Expected to sell 25 million copies on its first day

With the release of “GTA 6,” a game with worldwide popularity, just weeks away, a new forecast suggests that the game could cost the U.S. economy $1 billion (about KRW 1.32 trillion). More than 1 million workers are expected to take time off to play from launch day.

According to recent reports by foreign media outlets including Forbes and GamesRadar, an economist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, analyzed that about 1.5 million U.S. workers may call in sick on November 19 (local time), the release date of “GTA 6.” They would do so to play the game from its first day of release.

GTA 6 is an open-world shooter developed by British company Rockstar Games and is highly popular in the West. Rockstar Games

This is not an official economic forecast, but an estimate based on patterns of leave and absenteeism observed around the release of “GTA 5.” According to the economist’s analysis, the average annual output per U.S. worker is about $70,000 (approximately KRW 93 million). If 1.5 million people were absent at the same time, the short-term loss could reach $1 billion.

Those absent are likely to be between 18 and 30 years old, with a higher absentee rate among men than women. The analysis also suggests that the game could have a relatively greater impact on the technology sector, including IT, than on other industries. There are also forecasts that employee productivity could decline overall immediately after the release. Employees might stay up late playing the game the night before or lose focus on work while discussing it at the office.

Wall Street estimates that it will sell about 25 million copies on launch day. Rockstar Games.

“GTA 6” is the sixth installment in an open-world game series developed by British company Rockstar Games. It is known for recreating a vast virtual city as realistically as possible, where players can take part in various activities or play through a campaign about the criminal underworld in the United States. The GTA franchise has an enormous influence on the video game industry in the United States and other Western countries. Bloomberg reports that Wall Street expects “GTA 6” to sell more than 25 million copies on its first day.

However, some analysts say that even if large numbers of workers take time off to play the game, it is unlikely to cause real harm to the U.S. economy. Rockstar Games, the developer of “GTA 6,” is part of U.S. video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (Take-Two). A significant share of the revenue generated by “GTA 6” is expected to flow back to Take-Two, potentially offsetting the decline in productivity.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.