Introduction to Tom Petty’s Influence in GTA
I’m pretty certain my first ever exposure to Tom Petty came via GTA: San Andreas, whose K-DST radio station featured Runnin’ Down a Dream on its tracklist of wall-to-wall dad rock bangers. Now Mr Petty’s made a return as part of the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, which is soundtracked by Love Is a Long Road, and it looks like more than a few other people might have had their first encounter with the artist off the back of it, too.
| Song | Game |
| Runnin’ Down a Dream | GTA: San Andreas |
| Love Is a Long Road | Grand Theft Auto 6 |
Spotify Statistics on Tom Petty’s Song
According to stats from Spotify provided to the BBC, streams for Love Is a Long Road have skyrocketed by an incomprehensible 36,979% compared to this time last week, which either means a whole lot of people pulled up Shazam when they watched the GTA 6 trailer, or every dad in the world has returned to their garage to work on their car all at once.
- Percentage increase in streams: 36,979%
- Total Spotify streams: over 11 million
- Other platforms with increased streams: Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music, etc.
Song Relevance to GTA 6
Love Is a Long Road, in case you aren’t familiar, is a song about a desperate and doomed relationship that I’m gonna venture is quite appropriate for GTA 6’s narrative about a Bonnie and Clyde-esque couple on a Vice City crime spree. Petty was a Florida native, too, which I suppose makes the song doubly appropriate for Rockstar’s return to the setting it last visited in 2007’s GTA: Vice City Stories.
Rockstar’s Marketing Strategy
Rockstar’s gone pretty hard on GTA’s music in its marketing for the next game. In November, it shared a Grand Theft Auto Radio playlist on Spotify featuring the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, TOTO, Gorillaz, and various other bands you can find across the series. It’s got nearly half a million likes so far, so some way to go before it catches up with Tom Petty.
