GTA 6 trailer boosts Tom Petty’s ‘Love is a Long Road’ Spotify streams by a staggering amount

It comes with little surprise that the GTA 6 trailer, which dropped this past Tuesday has been the talk of the internet, with the long-awaited trailer already breaking the record for the most-viewed video game reveal on YouTube in its first 24 hours as well as the record for the most-viewed non-music YouTube video in 24 hours (a record previously held by Mr. Beast).

What’s a little more surprising however, at least in my eyes, is something I call the “Spotify runoff effect,” which is the correlating numbers boost that the GTA 6 trailer has given to the artist/song featured on its soundtrack — in this case, rock and roll legend Tom Petty’s “Love is a Long Road.” The song, released in 1989 as a B-side to Petty’s uber-famous “Free Fallin’,” has now eclipsed over 11 million streams at the time of this writing — an increase of 36,979% compared to this time last week, according to Spotify.

Though it’s unclear what Petty, who passed away in 2017, would have thought about his song being featured alongside bikini-clad vixens gyrating atop speeding cars, self-professed Dad Bod lotharios flexing “sugar babies” on yachts, face-tattooed criminals or the overarching Bonnie and Clyde-esque narrative between protagonists Lucia and Jason in the fictitious Florida-inspired state of Leonida, the fact that the GTA 6 trailer has boosted “Love is a Long Road” by such a considerable amount is an impressive feat nonetheless. Fans of the game are already extolling the song as a choice for the soundtrack as well, with one YouTube commenter stating in the “Love is a Long Road” video comments section, “One of the most underrated Tom Petty songs ending up into one of the most loved game franchises is just phenomenal,” and another saying, “If GTA helps the younger generations discover great artists like Tom then I’m here for it. Crazy to see how many views this song got in just a couple hours.”

Already inquisitive GTA fans are analyzing the lyrics to “Love is a Long Road” for any possible affiliation with what is going on in the trailer. The song’s opening lyrics:

There was a girl I knew
She said she cared about me
She tried to make my world
The way she thought it should be

Will most certainly be applicable to main protagonist Lucia and the precarious situations she is sure to get into with fellow protagonist and love interest Jason.

Similar Spotify runoffs due to popular video game and television/movie properties in recent years have included Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” seeing big streaming boosts due to Stranger Things. A similar effect was also seen in Linda Rondstadt’s “Long Long Time” thanks to HBO’s The Last of Us series.

Petty, who had a successful music career both as leader of the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was famous for such hits as “American Girl” and “Don’t Do Me Like That” also achieved considerable success as a solo artist as well, with well-known hits like “I Won’t Back Down” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”

“Love is a Long Road” isn’t the first Tom Petty song to be featured in a Grand Theft Auto game — “Runnin’ Down a Dream” was featured in 2004’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.