Why GTA VI players are borrowing New Zealand's time zone

RNZ explains the Xbox region-switching workaround known as the "Kiwi hack", along with the account penalties it warns could follow.

Channel: RNZ Story of November 14, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of RNZ's most watched videos since yesterday, with 2,094 views.

Why GTA fans around the world are pretending to be Kiwis | RNZ

Next story: Milne predicts RNZ chair Impey will leave within weeks

Playing GTA VI early doesn't necessarily mean flying to New Zealand. RNZ's launch explainer describes how overseas Xbox players can try to borrow the country's time-zone advantage by changing their console's region.

The report says New Zealand players will get access a couple of hours before their Australian neighbours and around 20 hours before some players elsewhere. It describes gamers travelling to the country to play early, before explaining the less expensive alternative: the "New Zealand trick", also called the "Kiwi hack".

The idea is to make the console's regional setting match a place where the game has already unlocked. That is why fans overseas are, in the language of RNZ's title, "pretending to be Kiwis".

But the report ends with a qualification rather than a guarantee of consequence-free early access. RNZ warns that changing regions for this purpose could bring an Xbox warning, suspension or outright ban.

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Why GTA VI players are borrowing New Zealand's time zone The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/rnznewzealand-36973/

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The numbers

RNZ's explainer drew about 2,100 views since yesterday, the most among its uploads from the past two days.

subscribers

255,000

▲ 2,000 in the last 7 days

total views

153,636,409

views per day

48,432

typical day: 167,950

the video

views

2,289

likes

56

comments

5

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

The Sydney Morning Herald…

271,000

The Globe and Mail

267,000

RTÉ News

257,000

RNZ

255,000

Washington Week PBS

248,000

Royal Exclusive

244,000

As of November 14, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.