GTA 5’s casino update was so popular it broke the game

GTA V’s casino update in GTA Online, which added the much teased Diamond Casino & Resort to Los Santos, was so popular that following its release it actually broke the game.

GTA servers hit hard

Droves of Grand Theft Auto Online players that wanted to visit the new casino found themselves unable shortly after the update went live. Downtime was reported on GTA 5 across all platforms on July 23, the same day as the Casino Diamond & Resort DLC went live.

Rockstar’s data centers have generally been very stable throughout the life of GTA 5, but even their presumably expensive servers couldn’t handle the influx of new and returning GTA players. North America and Europe were most affected, with the PS3 being hit particularly hard.

Issues ranged from not being able to join online lobbies, to the game freezing and a generally laggy experience. The problems even crossed over into GTA’s online racing where other players’ cars would teleport all over the place, essentially making it unplayable.

Mass migration back to Los Santos

The massive increase in players trying to play GTA online can be seen on the Steam charts. Over the last month there have been an average of around 70,000 concurrent players causing trouble in Los Santos.

Following the casino update though, this spiked to 160,000 reaching a peak of just under 200,000. As of writing there are 158,000 players currently playing.

• Read More: 22 new vehicles leaked for Diamond Casino

The 200,000 figure which was achieved yesterday is actually the most concurrent players that have been playing since its release on PC in 2015.

Plenty to do at the Diamond Casino

The Diamond Casino is situated in Vinewood Park Drive, next to the racetrack. It is more than a casino though, on top of various ways to gamble, the new update adds luxury penthouses, which are fully customizable, rooftop parties, new vehicles and a new online storyline with new missions to play.

Whether citizens of Los Santos are just curious as to what the Diamond looks like, need yet another luxury apartment or car, gamble their GTA dollars away or play for the missions – they have flocked back to GTA, even more than Rockstar predicted.