Rockstar Games made it clear it would not negotiate with the hacking group. While the leaked data was eventually released, there was no sign of GTA 6. Instead, the leak has only served to delight shareholders of Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company.

The hacking group ShinyHunters has released stolen Rockstar Games data on the dark web. In 2022, Rockstar suffered a major setback when 90 clips of development footage were leaked, exposing work-in-progress content. Consequently, this latest hack and data release drew significant industry attention. However, this leak proved to be a boon rather than a blow to the company..

The data breach was carried out by obtaining authentication tokens to gain unauthorized access to Rockstar's Snowflake cloud environment. Consequently, speculation has leaned toward the potential exposure of marketing or financial data rather than actual development files. Rockstar has also dismissed the leaked materials as a 'limited amount of non-critical corporate information.'

On the 11th, ShinyHunters accessed internal files and threatened to leak the data unless a ransom was paid. However, as previously stated, Rockstar deemed the data unimportant and maintained its stance of refusing to negotiate. Consequently, ShinyHunters released the data on the 14th, the deadline they had set.

The leaked data did not include GTA 6 source code, unreleased footage, or marketing information that would impact future release schedules. Instead, the release contained revenue and user statistics for 'GTA Online' and 'Red Dead Online.' The data covered the period from September 2025 to April 2026, showing an average weekly revenue of approximately $9.59 million and an average daily revenue of about $1.31 million. On an annual basis, this suggests cumulative revenue of approximately $500 million (roughly ₩700 billion). Notably, cumulative Shark Card revenue was reported to exceed $5 billion.

The platform breakdown is also noteworthy. In terms of weekly active users, the PS5 leads with approximately 3.47 million, followed by the PS4 with 1.89 million, and the Xbox Series X|S with 1.13 million. The PS5 also topped the revenue charts with approximately $4.48 million, while PC ranked lowest at approximately $260,000. The data provides some insight into why Rockstar prioritizes consoles in its GTA 6 release strategy.

Meanwhile, following the data release, the stock price of Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two, surged to $207.78 immediately at the market open. Its market capitalization temporarily increased by about $1 billion. Although it later settled in the high $200s, it maintained an upward trend through the close of the market. Investors saw the robust revenue structure of 'GTA Online' in the leaked data rather than the damage from the hack.

With GTA Online generating stable revenue, expectations are high that the profit structure will expand further with the release of GTA 6 this November and its subsequent online mode. Contrary to industry concerns, this hacking incident has turned into an opportunity for Rockstar and Take-Two to demonstrate their strength.