How we handle leaks

We publish no image, no video, no mirror and no direct link to leaked Grand Theft Auto VI material, however widely it has already spread. The rule has no exceptions, and it held through the wave of unauthorised videos in August 2026, at the point where it cost us the most traffic.

What we do not do

No screenshot, no thumbnail, no reuploaded clip, no link to an archive, no pointer to a thread that carries one. Not in an article, not as illustration, not in a story.

Leaks never go on our social accounts. They stay on the site, in text. A social feed pushes an image in front of people who did not ask for it, and takes away the only choice that matters here: the choice not to see it.

What we do

We describe what is claimed, we name who claims it, and we state what Rockstar Games has and has not confirmed. A sequence going around can be described in words without being shown, and it is usually the description that carries the value, not the file.

A headline never presents leaked material as established fact. The source level sits on the article, as it does everywhere else on the site, and a leak stays at level 4 until an official source or an established outlet stands behind it.

When Rockstar Games speaks, we publish it and we date it. On August 26, 2026, the studio said the videos had been “heartbreaking for our team”, after several days of silence. That is a level 1 fact and it is handled as one.

Why the line is there

Three reasons, in this order.

The work being shown is unfinished. A shot pulled from a development build says nothing about what the game will be on November 19, 2026, and much of what circulated in 2022 no longer exists in that form.

The people behind the game are identifiable. A leak exposes names, work in progress and internal builds, belonging to people who chose none of it.

And a reader who wants to avoid spoilers should be able to read a news site without walking into them. Our spoiler-avoidance guide starts from the same principle.

What that means for you

A GTA6 LIFE article about a leak can be read with no risk of seeing an image of the game that Rockstar Games did not publish itself. The only visuals on this site are official press images, credited, used as editorial illustration inside an article.

If you find a breach of this rule on our pages, write to [email protected] with the link: we take it down first and discuss afterwards.