The GTA 6 Video Leaks

I will start by saying this post does not contain the leaks themselves, but does reference them.

As of writing on 2026-08-19 there have been a total of 3 2026-08-21 there have been a total of 6 video leaks and the map leaked.

"leeks"

Who is this leaker?

First off, I do not think this "CyberLeek" character is acting in the interest of gamers, their primary motivation is made pretty clear by the size of their "BUY $###### ON SOLANA" burnt-in watermark in comparison to the comparatively minuscule blip of text in the third leak saying "NO PHYSICAL DISCS? THEN MORE LEEKS!" on top of the "about" section on their site being either the corniest written text on planet earth, or more likely, ai generated.

I would not be surprised if the footage itself is not obtained by them directly, but purchased from someone else. But either way, the leaks themselves are real.

Update: read more on my thoughts about this below.

Their "manifesto"/"edict"

Either the person writing this is the corniest mf on planet earth, or ChatGPT wrote it. Either way, its meaningless.

The leaks themselves

There is a total of 3 NOW 4 videos leaked thus far.

A note: all 3 clips do not have meaningful metadata to date the clips. The clips are all modified to burn in the shitcoin promo's, and the only "indication" is that they were encoded with a 2023 version of ffmpeg... which means nothing because old versions of ffmpeg are shipped all over the place and you have to go out of your way if you want a recent version. For all intents and purposes the only concrete evidence of a timeframe is the third "Taser" clip containing a song that released in 2025.

Basketball

This was the first clip that leaked, and frankly my initial reactions were "generative video ai has gotten better and the person who made this spent a good amount of money and time making this". As time went on, and a higher quality version was shared around it became increasingly clear that is was real.

The clip in summary starts with Jason leaning on a railing at his house, exiting the lean, going downstairs to the drive, grabbing a basketball, and shooting it in the hoop a couple times before it rolls off and into the water.

At 0:05 into the clip Jason performs an exit animation out of leaning on the railing, in doing so he briefly snaps up. This was one of the clues I noticed before it was outrageously clear that this was real. An AI generated video would not make that minor of a quirk to games.

The video also has some quirks to it that threw me off initially, primarily relating to the user interface (UI).

Throughout the entire clip, the character balance and safehouse balance are visible, and at 0:23 Jason picks up a baseball and bizzardly the cash shifts down to make room for it. The cash being visible at all times is not a thing that normally happens in GTA games, and is mostly just a waste of screen real estate, and it being shifted by the weapon seemed all the more weird.

There is also quite a bit in the way of bizarre other UI elements during the basketball shooting. The bottom right button glyphs (akin to that of RDR2) have no... button glyphs. Just empty circles. One of the theories was that this was to make the build platform agnostic.

At 0:27 a bizarre helptext appears, I say bizarre because its a weird looking black-to-white gradient with a 1 pixel white outline around the edge that looks like it was a badly slapped over png.

at 0:34 a bizzare "Focus +2%" ui appears at the bottom right, this is the weirdest looking UI element that sticks out like a sore thumb because it looks like something slapped together in a web-based UI overlay, the type of thing you'd see in a FiveM server where their entire codebase is written by Claude Code.

At the same timestamp of 0:34 you can see 1 scored (basketball hoop icon) on the right, the same area that RDR2 shows honour and so on.

Overall the UI is extremely disjointed in this clip (and to a lesser extent, the others as well) so I do think this is a relatively older clip, atleast a year old. UI stuff I can't imagine would be roadblocked by other development so I would absolutely expect it to be stable by now, especially if they are doing previews to media (per Insider Gaming).

Some other notes about the video, global illumination is seemingly visible in the underside of Jason's house. When the camera is facing the basketball hoop you can see the back right support for his house is illuminating in spite of the sun coming from behind it, which is a result of light bouncing off the sand and onto the back surface of it.

It should be noted that I presume that GTA 6 is no different to... just about every game in existence in that key-areas will be more detailed and graphically polished than elsewhere, Jason's house being no different.

I cannot say if it's RTGI or something else, but either way the graphics of the clip look great. The water looks a bit rough when the basketball rolls into it at the end though.

The clip as well is 10 bit HDR encoded with H265 at 2560x1440, although its compressed to a point I couldn't even begin to try and count pixels like im digital foundry to figure out the render resolution.

Random Video 1

Random Video 1 implies the existence of Random Video 2

This clip released around the same time that I was able to see a higher quality version of the first clip, and cemented the leaks as being 100% real. This leaked within like, 45 minutes of the first clip circulating.

This video is also h265 hdr, although only at 1920x1080. The difference in resolutions is curious to me because it COULD (but not guarantee) that the clips are from two seperate setups, but it is also entirely possible it was just a result of the "leeker" burning in their nonsense.

This clip has Jason driving a VAPID Ganado, while some music is playing. The UI is a bit wonky here as well, the subtitles just being some plain font with a black outline slapped over the screen. I would expect the release one to have something more akin to RDR2's subtitles, which they are clearly setup to do so as all the ambient voicelines by NPCs are subtitled (unlike V). They just... seemingly havent quite styled it yet, or its possible this is just a setting variation and you can control the level of detail - candidly its been a hot minute since I've played RDR2 so this might be something present in it as well.

Jason then gets pitted by a SCOOP delivery boxville that t-boned him. The driver gets out and starts to throw hands with Jason with a pipe wrench (which... why does a delivery driver have a pipe wrench?)

Jason then naturally, mercilessly beats up the delivery driver with his own pipe wrench (which he can be seen picking up off the ground as a seperate prompt, akin to RDR2). At which point the cops get called, with that you can also see that the max wanted level is 6 stars, and there is some sort of Stamina involved with a gauge at the top left. After he does this, theres also seemingly some sort of 😈 gauge that appears in the area where Honour would appear in the center right, as well as at the bottom right. It doesn't seem to quite be Honour, but maybe just something more akin to how... criminal the characters are being, I presume the bottom right Jason thing is related to the character switcher, with Lucia not being unlocked by whoever is recording these clips so instead it's just... jason being there. He then goes back in car and at the top right you can see three red icons, one relating to clothing, one being presumed to be a location marker, and the last being a vehicle. Based on conversations with others this seems to be most likely related to what the police know about you (Your clothing, your location, and what vehicle you are in) so changing those would contribute to losing the cops. Additionally, theres a circle radius around where he commited the crime that may be related to losing the cops before they actually gain eyes on you, so presumably if you left that area quick enough you could avoid the cops altogether.

Once he is inside the vehicle a Fuel and Oil/Engine gauge also appear at the bottom left as well as the vehicle maker, year, and model. Jason then skidaddles in the Ganado into a parking lot of a Health Clinic and goes towards a helicopter before the clip ends.

Overall this clip seems a fair bit more... polished than the other clip, but its hard to say if these are from the same timeframe or not still.

Taser

This clip leaked the following day after the 2 other leaks and, as the name might suggest, contains Jason with a taser.

He drives up into an industrial area of the map, approaches two guards, begins to fight with one and seemingly grabs the gun out of the hand of the security guards and knocks them out with it, with a slow motion "execution" somewhat akin to that of one from RDR2. (Unrequested opinion: kinda a odd thing to have in a GTA i feel, but im not too bothered either way)

He also gets tazed, but promptly tanks it before picking up the hat of the other security guard and picking up the taser. Somewhat neatly the security guard actually reacts to being tazed despite already being "downed". Another guard comes up, gets tazed, and ragdolls in a pretty eccentric but (afaik) vaguely accurate manner to what someone who actually got tazed would. Yet another guard comes up, but this one flees after seeing their colleague get tazed.

At this point jasons running animation while he's got the tazer in hand looks... kinda wonky if ill be honest, atleast until he's out of the combat stance.

And then the first clip ends with jason driving a truck he stole out.

Now what is somewhat intriguing is the inclusion of a second clip at the end of Jason and Cal talking, wherein Cal states "They don't know nothin' about me, man. I use a VPN!" which seems to be pretty clearly a reference to the leaker themselves. The inclusion of this cutscene is pretty intriguing because it is quite far disconnected from the other clips we have seen, and suggests that either they

Have access to the game to get convenient clips

Have access to a significant quantity of clips

This would also be backed up by the manner in which the leaked full-map is seemingly stitched together from a massive amount of screenshots. Which would imply it was not done in a deliberate manner (I.E, the person playing was not deliberately trying to show the whole map so they had to piece it together)

Junkies

This is the fourth clip, also posted on 2026-08-19 shortly after me posting this leaflet, because of course.

This one contains more UI stuff that furthers my believe that this is early, and some other mechanics and such. All of these clips appear to be from the same build, and same point in the story, atleast from what i've seen. It also shows more about the cops, as Jason steals a police motorcycle after kicking a cop off of it and driving off, the game also pops a helptext informing him that "The cops are searching for you [star glyph] and they have your description" followed by the three icons mentioned in the above, further cementing the meaning of what those icons are for.

While he is driving off to go and drown the motorcycle, he pulls up the weapon wheel which has two tabs, one for items and one for weapons, precisely the same as RDR2. The UI looks a bit clunky and... square, so I am leaning on assuming this is, again, early.

Edit 2026-08-21: There is also a location icon that appears in the bottom left near the vehicle, which may imply the vehicle itself is tracked in some manner.

We also get to see something akin to the Max Payne 3 painkillers used described as "Zombix" through a helptext stating "Repeated use of Zombix will temporarily have a weaker effect on your health."

On a slightly more humourous note, the watermark has replaced the "for gamers" nonsense with "CYBERLEEK DOES NOT HAVE TWITTER" which confirms another of my suspicions that absolutely none of the "channels" we've seen them "communicating on" are anything but people pretending to be them for attention.

Anyway, at this point i have no idea what to think, but I would not expect rockstar to react to this stuff publicly until they are confident they have it stopped.

Update 4:48 PM, the singular mirror of transfiles.ru nuked the file.

Which is honestly kind of surprising for a russian domain... But hey I guess even Russians have standards ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Poll

As any self-righteous person "for the gamers" would do, they have opened a poll, the poll being voted for with... their cryptocurrency. Something I realized is that they could realistically use their (presumed) major supply of coin to manipulate the vote to make it closer, although as of writing it is just one person who voted about $80 on Plane (day)

I would not expect any more leaks until this "poll" concluded. I would also strongly advise you do not pay to vote on this... I hope that goes without saying. 🙃

Plane (poll)

This video was the result of the poll above, and simply shows Jason flying a plane about for about a minute. It also shows the radio wheel briefly. Nothing particularly shocking about gameplay is revealed in it, but you do get some nice views of the city.

Now the odd bit out is at the end, Jason shoots into a wall the word "LEEK". While it is reasonable to jump to the conclusion that this means they are in possession of a build, I do not think it is a guarantee. Although it is not an unreasonable assumption.

At the absolute minimum, it does suggest whoever is playing the game is consciously involved in leaking it. It does not, however, prove that they are in possession of the build themselves at present. It is possible whoever recorded this footage and shared it shot "LEEK" into the wall just to be silly, or because they can't spell "LEAK", and the individual leaking the footage subsequently inherited the spelling for their pseudonym.

Now if they spell out todays date, their whole name, or do something a bit less ambiguous, then yeah they are in possession of the whole build. I still am of the belief that they are simply sitting on a cache of footage.

It does certainly bring up questions about how someone who has access to the game has gone and decided to be as brazen about it as to shoot "Leek" into a wall, but at this point I honestly don't know what to think about whoever is recording it. Except that they need to learn to drive better.

Hypercar Part 1

This was uploaded 2026-08-21, after a period of silence. It seems likely that this video is, it self, from the poll as well (likely the Car (Night) one) which would further suggest that the leaker themselves does not have active possession of the game. I still am of the belief that they just have a fairly large cache of footage from this game build, and that they themselves aren't the ones playing.

The video itself isn't anything too groundbreaking, it just shows a faster car being driven around, and reveals more of the map, more brands, etc. Nothing gameplay wise is particularly notable, besides the fact that OH MY GOD, IT'S A GRAND THEFT AUTO GAME :O

The video does cut quite abruptly and the name would imply its part of a longer video. Clearly they are trying to get the most mileage out of this footage as they can so they can shill the shitcoin longer, which is further backed by the watermark reading "HIGHER MARKETCAP = MORE LEEKS" (they aren't even pretending to be for the gamers™ at the point it seems)

The Subpoena

Now this is the interesting part, because besides the obligatory DMCA's this is the first actions we've seen taken by Take Two in the direction of the leaker.

Via:

https://x.com/videotech/status/2090830323709788205

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74681114/1/take-two-interactive-software-inc/

Now candidly I think this is actually a bad look for Take Two, because it implies they genuinely do not know who they are dealing with at this point, and are just beginning to cast a wide net and hoping they get the guy.

This is even further backed by the fact that they are for some reason... after the DarkViperAU discord server?

On that note, there was explicit mention of the server used by DarkViper's editors, (which, I will note, I am in due to my collaboration on the Facts and Glitches episode, but have not been active in throughout these events)

Via: https://kotaku.com/take-two-subpoenas-microsoft-and-discord-records-related-to-spread-of-gta-6-leaks-2000726633 (I could not find it in the courtlistener page..?)

Although in doing so, they did not have the server id, and the links they are giving are all for the public server. And I cannot even find that mention of the editor server in the courtlistener... So I am really not entirely sure where that came from, unless it was like an early draft that they later corrected to point towards the public server..?

I am pretty damn certain that the leaks are sure as shit not originating from DarkViper, although he, like literally every other person in the GTA sphere, is covering the topic (but not showing footage)

At this point it is clear that Take Two and Rockstar do not know who is doing these leaks, and given we are like 3 days into this, that's pretty bad for them. I also think that the accounts they are going after have a very high chance of being owned by people pretending to be CYBERLEEK to attention farm, because people are stupid and countless people are pretending as such. I do not have any sympathy for people who are pretending to be a "criminal" and then being hunted down because they were presenting as the criminal.

In summary, Take Two are still looking, and Mr "not even pretending to be for the gamers" leeker is still leaking.

Not even pretending anymore

On 2026-08-21 around 3:30 PM ET~ the website was updated with an additional page called "Contact"

The contact page has the incredible proposition of sending 400 XMR (~160K USD) to an address in exchange for the opportunity to speak to CyberLeek. That fee doesn't get you anything but the "i pinky promise ill contact you".

The "deals" on offer are purchasing ad placements in the form of video watermarks (in place of his i suppose), or requesting "custom-made gameplay footage tailored to specific brands (including sexual content)." It then goes further on to say "All pricing, terms, and deliverables are discussed privately over Session"

Now even the stupidest moron wouldnt pay 160k for this, so chances are the only people who would ever pay these fees are already scummy groups of people anyway.

But this does remove any even vague remnant of it being motivated "for the gamers", although the about page still remains.

If anything, I think the only people who might pay such a fee would be Rockstar/Take Two in an attempt to milk any even vague details about the person.

I was wondering if you could monitor the wallet (blurred above) for transactions, but from a quick search it seems like Monero is more resiliant to such things.

The fun bit on top of all this? The "spectacle" of the leaks is becoming less and less as more and more footage comes out from them. The initial videos spread further and faster than the most recent ones, the leaker is flooding their own market.

Anyway, I will say this is remarkably ballsy because now its not extortion, its a whole pile of other shite. I have to assume they are living on a raft in international waters if they are willing to do this stuff so loudly.

Hypercar 2

This video was released on 2026-08-22 in the morning, it has Jason driving the Thrax around more, and shows him robbing two convenience stores as well.

Some notable game mechanics shown is two "services" offered at the gas station pumps including refuelling ($32) and repairing ($2,429) although they are both greyed out as the player only has $0 in their bank account (I believe).

When he walks into the store, there is also some Glazed Donut's available for $3 dollars. Which may have something to do with the stamina mechanic?

The clip ends with a cut to Jason walking into a stripclub, which ties into...

Stripclub

Jason walks around a stripclub. There isnt anything particularly earth shattering here either, although you can see some basketball being played on the TV which might be 2k for all we know.

He also pulls up the weapon wheel, revealing Binoculars, which he uses in a way you could probably imagine, and a fishing rod, which he does not use. Also a flashlight, all described as "Equipment" like RDR2's weapon wheel does.

Then we get another cutscene at the end with jason talking about needing to "take a leak" and some guy talking to him while in the bathroom.

Overall, all of these clips still seem to be quite early in the game as Lucia is still not seen.

Everything below is less chronological and is more so segments about it in general

i probably should've put date/timestamps on them as I wrote them... woop (Signed, me, at 2026-08-21 1:36 PM)

Observations about the leaks themselves

The leaks all seem to take place in the early game, no footage of Lucia is any of the four clips leaked thus far (as of writing) and all seem to take place in the early area of the game... i think.

To me it seems most likely that this is from one continuous play session or something - I do not think the leaker has access to the game. I think they just have access to a cache of footage, or one long snippet of gameplay that happened to include some missions, which is where the cutscene with Cal referencing VPN's would be coming from. That cutscene might just be a lucky coincidence that it takes place in the early game (as, again, no Lucia is present).

Another curiosity about the leaks is that they are all HDR. Capturing HDR off a system is not something I am even aware of the best way to do so, yet all of these clips are all HDR. And while it is a lot harder to say definitively, it does seem like the same person playing it... whoever that may be.

At the very least this cements the expectations that the early game takes place with Jason alone and Lucia is released from prison a bit into the game.

2026-08-20 Update: See the Plane (poll) section for more updated info.

The reactions

An aspect of these leaks that I think is quite important is what is fueling the reaction around them.

While I do not believe that it justifies it in the slightest, the reason people are so ferocious over any leaks (these included) is that there has been very little in the way of information about the game. There has been pretty much zero consistent schedule of information about the game since it "started". We got a screenshot dump on the pre-order opening and since then... we've genuinely got nothing. The only thing we have on the horizon is the Netflix thing, which is still 9 days away as of writing.

Had we say, had more information, more regular screenshots, or seen gameplay now, I honestly do not think people would care nearly as much as they do now. It seems most likely that the leaked videos themselves are atleast a year old, and why would people watch old leaked videos when they could watch higher quality actual official footage?

I also think that the timing is suspect, this footage may have been exchanging hands for a while now, but its "value" would inevitably be decreased greatly once the Netflix presentation comes out (that is, assuming it is more detailed than these leaks) so they are cashing in on its "value" now before then.

All of this is just theorization though, I cant know their motivations or how this stuff moved around at all. And chances are we probably will never know exactly.

The map

There is also leaks of two zoomed in areas of the map with 3d visuals on the buildings, and a full zoomed out version which appears to exclude those finer details (which are likely revealed once zoomed in further). As mentioned above the full map is seemingly haphazardly stitched together from a massive amount of screenshots, which, again, as mentioned, implies that whoever is leaking this does not have access to the game because they probably would've just moved the view left/right/up/down in a more controlled manner to facilitate getting a full view of the map.

The colouring on the various slices varies quite a bit, but I presume this is a product of some HDR -> SDR conversion.