GTA 6 Fans Are Over The Moon Excited About This Screenshot Rockstar Shared

GTA Online screenshot showing a moon in the background.
Fans of Rockstar's popular Grand Theft Auto series are chomping at the bit (technically champing, for you grammar purists) for any details they can get regarding the highly-anticipated next installment, Grand Theft Auto VI. The first and still only official trailer for the next installment in the franchise series was released less than a year ago and has over 219 million views. Could a second trailer be coming soon? The answer may possible depend on your interpretation of moon phases.

Say what, now? In case you missed it, Rockstar Games recently provided a community update on GTA Online, saying that a December patch will introduce new missions and challenges, as well as other content and tweaks. Rockstar also posted some accompanying images, one of which caught the attention of fans on Reddit. It's the image posted above.

The detail that's sparking speculation is the "Waning Gibbous Moon" in the upper-left corner. Apparently there are some avid astronomers among the GTA fan base, because as they posit in the thread, "The moon phase is just a tease for sure."

Graphic oultining the moon phases.
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If you're not up to snuff on your moon phases, a Gibbous moon is one in which most but not all of the moon is visible. As NASA describes it, a waxing Gibbous phase is between a half moon and full moon and indicates it's getting bigger, while a waning Gibbous is between a full moon and a half moon as visibility of the moon gets smaller.

The next official waxing Gibbous phase is slated to occur this Friday, November 22, with 75% illumination. As such, GTA fans eager for any morsel they can find are suggesting (and hoping) that Rockstar will make some kind of GTA VI announcement on the 22nd.

If you buy into that theory, then we could see a second official trailer drop this Friday, and/or a progress update on the game's development. It would also be great if Rockstar revealed a release date—as it stands, Rockstar has gone on record saying, "Grand Theft Auto VI is coming to PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X|S games and entertainment systems in 2025."

Whether there's truly anything to the moon phase shown in the GTA Online screenshot remains to be seen, but if nothing else, it goes to show how much pent up excitement and hype exists for the next major installment in this long-running, hard-hitting game franchise.