Following the leak (and subsequent official release) of Grand Theft Auto 6’s first trailer, fans have already taken to social media to gobble up handles matching the fictional ones depicted in Rockstar’s upcoming game.
Grand Theft Auto 6’s first official reveal leaked less than a day before it was scheduled to go public on YouTube, following a number of substantial leaks that spoiled the location and protagonists last year. The full trailer gives us a nice look at the game’s Florida-inspired setting, and introduces us a bit to the protagonists. It also showed off some faux social media clips that will likely play a role in the narrative in some capacity, and fans have immediately taken to real life social media platforms to grab the handles while they’re still available.
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One of the first we spotted was @OfficialPOACH. Seen around 43 seconds into the trailer, POACH stands for “Protection of Animals and Controlled Hunting” as seen in the badge in the lower left corner of the screen.
That very hilarious name has been grabbed on Instagram for an account that has thus far shared a few shots from the trailer. And that’s not all; other names seen in the trailer like “GeneralCustardCannon” and have.a.vice.day have also been parked by fans. LuchaLibreFan, which in the trailer shows a video of a random lady in the town of Hamlet wielding two hammers (as one does), has also been snagged on TikTok. HighRollerzMag, which appears at 1:08 in the new trailer, was also grabbed on Instagram.
What role will social media play in Grand Theft Auto 6?
Grand Theft Auto is no stranger to social commentary. Both Grand Theft Auto IV and V featured a functioning internet reminiscent of what the web was like at the times both games were released. Grand Theft Auto V even went all-in on satire of Facebook with its own LifeHacker (there’s even a mission where you sabotage a LifeHacker smartphone at a press conference in an…explosive way).
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But GTA 5 hit shelves all the way back in 2013. It’s been ten years since then; the world is a very different place, and social media’s position in the world is arguably quite different as well. Given GTA’s propensity for timely commentary and satire, combined with a painstaking drive to recreate real-world systems inside its games, it’s gonna be interesting to see where Rockstar goes with social media in GTA 6 when it launches in 2025.
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