Was GTA 6's trailer release date revealed by GTA Online T-shirt in June?

We’re mere hours away from the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, the simple teaser image for which has already sparked an internet-wide meme and thrown infinite fuel on the ever-burning GTA 6 rumour fire. Big questions remain, of course. Not least: when will GTA 6 actually be out? Yet some eagle-eyed internet detectives reckon GTA 6’s release date has been staring us all in the face - and nips - for months.

This all stems from that GTA 6 trailer release date reveal, which announced Trailer 1 as dropping on December 5th 2023 at 9am ET. Remember all that, because it’ll be important in a sec.

Back in June, GTA Online celebrated Grand Theft Auto V’s 10th anniversary with a series of new cosmetics for players to wear in the multiplayer mode. Among the clothing was a shirt featuring some iconography in a diamond surrounded by what appeared to be a string of random numbers. Making things even more mysterious was the fact that the top was simply named “??? Tee”, and was removed from the store soon after appearing.

Now over in your favourite clothes shop in #GTAOnline San Andreas Mercenaries, a GTA V Anniversary Top category... Along with something mysterious that may get some community analysers going.... pic.twitter.com/5TtUdNUcB2

— GTANet (@GTANet) June 13, 2023

Perhaps those numbers weren’t quite as random as they seemed, though. Fans soon decoded a secret message reading “ONEDAYWILLREVEALALL” once the shirt properly released in October.

Also hidden in the string of numbers was the sequence 12523, which at least one fan at the time - GTAForums user ItsLachieNZ - optimistically suggested might refer to some kind of reveal on December 5th 2023. Sound familiar? That’s right: it’s the GTA6 trailer date (in American date format). And after the string of 12523 came 09: a possible reference to its 9am ET release time, if you're sticking with this line of thinking.

Rockstar Games cooked 😭
The "ONEDAYWILLREVEALALL" Tshirt has a number sequence of 12523 which is the release date of the #GTA6 trailer. pic.twitter.com/MwJyVX0uyp

— Dyllie (@_Dyllie_) December 3, 2023

Here’s where the plot thickens even further. If it’s taken that the shirt was indeed a coded message about GTA 6’s trailer drop, then could it be hiding even more secrets? Unsurprisingly given the level of fervour around the game, fans across social media have quickly scoured it for any more possible clues.

One of the most prominent rumours concerns another string that could resemble a date: 040125. Following the same format as before, that’s April 1st 2025.

In June, as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations for GTA 5. Rockstar added this t-shirt to GTA Online. It was called the ??? Tee and once decoded reads 'ONE DAY WILL REVEAL ALL'. One number sequence stands out...1252309. December 5th 2023, 9am. THEY TOLD US IN JUNE. 🔍 #GTA6 pic.twitter.com/sTAbuN3H4p

— GTAVIoclock (@GTAVoclock) December 4, 2023

Could GTA 6’s release date AND trailer reveal really have been teased months ago on a virtual T-shirt? And will what’s likely to be the biggest game of the decade really release on April Fools’ Day - or is this just Rockstar laying a red herring and having a laugh with fans searching for any scrap of info?

It’s worth nothing that plenty of fans are rightly sceptical about the likelihood a single digital shirt might turn out to be such a goldmine of information about GTA 6, pointing out that the numbers around the edge of the design have plenty of other patterns that could be interpreted with similarly generous readings.

Time will tell whether the T-shirt’s predictions turn out to have legs. Given that, maybe the actual GTA 6 release date will be revealed with a pair of virtual pants.