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Video game journalist Wesley Yin-Poole, director of news at IGN, says the apparent leaks will be tough for the game's developers.
"GTA 6 is an enormous endeavour," says Yin-Poole. "It's being built over the course a decade, essentially, with thousands of people involved.
"To have the game exposed in this way will have been devastating to many people who worked on it."
The group behind the apparent leaks claims to be acting in the interests of players, accusing Rockstar of engaging in anti-consumer practices, such as its decision not to release a disc version of GTA 6 at launch.
Not everyone is convinced about the group's intentions, as each release of new material has invited viewers to send cryptocurrency "donations" to the user uploading them.
Stop Killing Games, which campaigns against all-digital distribution models, criticised the alleged leaks as "destructive" and urged people not to send money to those claiming responsibility.
Yin-Poole says there's "a huge amount of scepticism" about the stated motivation.
"Most people believe this is about money," he says, "it feels like, honestly, the whole 'we're doing this for the gamers' angle is nonsense, and I suspect most people have dismissed it."
Vermeij believes it's possible to overstate the significance of the leaks.
"I think the vast majority of gamers aren't really on the internet, hunting down these clips," he says.
However, Vermeij accepts there is a "very small subset" of hardcore fans desperate for any new information they can get their hands on.
So far, two official trailers for GTA 6 have been released, the most recent in May 2025. Since then, ardent fans have leapt on any rumours or apparent clues in official Rockstar posts.
Some famously came up with an elaborate theory, external suggesting an image of the moon included in a promotional post for GTA Online held clues to the release date of GTA 6's first trailer.
"To a certain extent, Rockstar has themselves to blame," says Vermeij. "That's their strategy - and I think it's a good strategy, it's exciting. But the consequence is that every little bit of information, every little event, gets sort of blown out of proportion."
Yin-Poole says while people will likely understand this isn't the way Rockstar had intended GTA6 to be revealed and that it doesn't show the game in the best light, he believes most will "reserve judgement" about it until they have seen official footage in action, or played it for themselves.
Ultimately, he believes there's little chance the leaks will "derail the potential success of the game".
"GTA 6 will be an unprecedented moment in pop culture history," he says. "So ultimately, this will become a footnote in the history of GTA 6's development."
Vermeij, who has not watched any of the latest leaks, agrees.
"I think it will have no impact at all whatsoever," he says. "People will have forgotten about it by the time the game comes out."
Grand Theft Auto 6 is due to be released on 19 November for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with a PC release expected at a later date.
