Earlier this week, Rockstar Games released the long-awaited first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, the massive sequel to 2013’s GTA 5. And while the trailer itself is quickly racking up millions of views every hour, the Tom Petty song featured in it is also doing pretty dang well, too.
I probably don’t need to tell you that on December 4, after a small leak, Rockstar released the first GTA 6 trailer a bit early and, in the process, blew up the internet. That trailer, which revealed the game won’t be out until 2025 and also showcased some incredible-looking NPCs, has since hit over 100 million views already, breaking some world records in the process. And the trailer’s song, “Love Is a Long Road,” is predictably blowing up too, according to Spotify.
As reported by IGN, Tom Petty’s “Love Is a Long Road” has seen a ridiculous increase in streams since the trailer went live. According to Spotify, streams of “Love Is a Long Road” have increased by 36,979% compared to last week. As of December 6, the song has over 11 million plays on Spotify.
Originally released in 1989, Tom Petty’s “Love Is a Long Road” was included on his massively successful album, Full Moon Fever, alongside hits like “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” While “Love Is a Long Road” will no doubt continue to explode online thanks to the GTA 6 trailer, this isn’t the first time Petty—who died in 2017—has had his music featured in a GTA game.
If you played GTA San Andreas back in 2004, you know that “Runnin’ Down A Dream” was included on the game’s classic rock radio station K-DST. According to the official Tom Petty Twitter account, the famous singer “loved contributing” the song to Rockstar’s massively successful open-world sequel.
I’d like to think if he was still alive today, Petty—who was born in Florida— would love his song being featured in a trailer for what looks to be the ultimate “Florida game.”
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