GTA 6: Rockstar Breaks Months of Silence to Give Yamal a "Like"

Lamine Yamal mentioned GTA 6 in an Instagram photo, and the post went viral: Rockstar, which has been silent for months, responded with a like.

GTA 6 trended again on July 31 without Rockstar Games posting anything: all it took was for Lamine Yamal, the Barça star and newly crowned 2026 World Cup champion with Spain, to write two words in an Instagram caption.

The soccer player posted a photo with his girlfriend and included a single caption that needs no translation:

GTA VI

That was all it took for the post to go viral. And what really sparked the conversation wasn’t the photo itself, but the fact that Rockstar Games (the developer that has lately been responding on social media with the silence of a sleeping giant) “liked” the post, according to GameRant.

The Numbers Behind the GTA 6 Post

In less than 8 hours, Yamal’s post garnered a response that any official campaign for the game would envy:

These figures come from Inven Global, which tracked the post from the moment it went live. For a soccer player who wasn’t promoting anything—just two random words with no further context—the reach borders on the absurd: not even the official announcement of the game’s release date generated this much buzz in such a short time.

Why does it matter that Rockstar “liked” it?

Because Rockstar almost never does. The company hasn’t released any new information about GTA 6 in months beyond what’s already been confirmed: a release date of November 19 on PS5 and Xbox, a return to Vice City, and the shared lead roles of Jason and Lucia, the game’s central characters. No sign of a third trailer, even though fans have been clamoring for one for weeks in every news story about the game.

The fact that the official account reacted specifically to a soccer player’s post—and not to any of the thousands of daily mentions the game receives—is no small detail. GameRant, which was the first to uncover the “like,” makes it clear that there’s no confirmation that this is a deliberate marketing move: Yamal didn’t clarify whether the mention had any ulterior motive, and Rockstar hasn’t said anything about it either. Take-Two did confirm that promotion of the game will ramp up this summer, but to suggest that this “like” is part of the plan is a leap that no media outlet has dared to make entirely. It could be a coincidence; it could be calculated, and so far, no one with the authority to confirm it has done so.

A World Champion, a “Like,” and a Lot of Buzz

The fact that it was Yamal, of all people, who posted this adds a certain intrigue. He just won the 2026 World Cup with Spain at only 19 years old; he’s one of the most-followed soccer players on the planet, and he didn’t even need to mention the game to make headlines. He did it anyway, and Rockstar’s “like” turned an ordinary post into the talk of half of Twitter’s gaming community, with screenshots circulating everywhere within minutes.

Rockstar’s confirmed details about GTA 6 remain the same as always, with no official updates for weeks: you can review the full list at what’s been confirmed. Yamal’s post doesn’t change any of that or reveal any new information about the game. All it has done is remind us that, in the midst of a drought of official announcements, all it takes is a single click from the developer to get half the internet talking about its game again—without spending a single euro on a marketing campaign.

Meanwhile, the silence surrounding Trailer 3 remains unbroken. And that—not a “like” for a soccer player—is the true indicator of when Rockstar has something real to show.