Here's the deal ... the trailer for 'GTA 6' was scheduled to be officially released on Tuesday -- but a good 24 hours beforehand ... an account on Twitter/X posted the whole damn thing in full, and it made the rounds for good couple hours or so online. Unclear how this happened.

The trailer was a minute and a half long, and it featured a lot of goods from what fans can expect in the new installment -- including new characters (like a male and female co-lead) and a bunch of other side roles. The maps were also unveiled in the leaked version.

Just about every tech/gaming account that covers this sort of stuff quote-tweeted the one account that posted the trailer -- but now, that video has been removed from the internet entirely, so it appears Rockstar and co. are leaping up and down to yank it ... and want to release it on their own terms tomorrow.

Unfortunately for them, screengrabs from the trailer are circulating all over the place ... and everyone's already seen what 'GTA 6' will entail. That also includes a lot of high-tech stuff within the game itself, including live streams from the characters themselves.

It certainly looks pretty cool ... and yeah, it sucks that Rockstar's thunder got stolen here. But hey, people are just happy this game is finally landing after a whopping 10 years.