# How to clear your backlog before GTA 6 **September 28, 2026 ยท Perthro** Grand Theft Auto VI comes out on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. For a lot of people, that date is going to swallow the rest of the year. Rockstar's open worlds are the kind of game you live in for weeks, and it's hard to enjoy a new one when three other games are still sitting half-finished on the home screen. This is a plan for the weeks in between. It isn't about finishing everything. It's about deciding what you actually want to play before November, finishing that, and setting the rest aside on purpose so it's still there in the new year. ## Start with a list of what you're actually playing Write down every game you'd call "in progress." Not your whole library, just the ones with a save file you've touched in the last few months. For most people that's somewhere between three and eight games. Next to each, write roughly how much is left. You don't need to be precise. "Two dungeons," "final chapter," "no idea, it's a roguelike" are all fine. That list is your real backlog for the next seven weeks. Everything else in your library can wait until after GTA 6 without any guilt. It's been waiting this long. ![Grand Theft Auto V screenshot: Los Santos, the city GTA 6 is finally moving on from](https://perthro.io/assets/blog/c6876f70ee12b109.jpg) ## Sort it into three piles Go through the list and put each game into one of three piles: - **Finish:** games you're enjoying and could realistically wrap up before November 19. A 12-hour indie with four hours left goes here. So does an RPG you're already in the last act of. - **Park:** games you like but can't finish in time. Long RPGs you're 20 hours into, live-service games, anything you play in short bursts with no ending. These aren't abandoned, just paused until the new year. - **Drop:** games you've been avoiding. If you've skipped a game every time you had a free evening for the last month, be honest with yourself. Our guide on [when to stop playing a game you're not enjoying](/blog/2026-09-21-when-to-stop-playing-a-game) covers how to tell. Most people find the Finish pile is smaller than they expected. That's the point. Two or three games you actually complete will feel better than six you nudge forward. ## Do the maths on your evenings Count how many hours a week you realistically play. Be honest about it: if it's six hours in a good week, don't plan for fifteen. Multiply that by the weeks left and compare it to the Finish pile. If you have about 40 hours and the Finish pile adds up to 60, move something to Park now rather than rushing at the end. It also helps to order the Finish pile so the longest game comes first. That way, if something takes longer than expected, it's a short game that slips, not the one you've already put 50 hours into. ## Park games properly Parking a game works better when you leave yourself a way back in. Before you put a long game down, write a couple of lines: - Where you are ("just reached the third city, about 30 hours in"). - What you were doing ("halfway through the thieves' guild questline"). - Anything you'll forget ("using a fire build, saving respec for later"). In January, that note is the difference between picking a game straight back up and starting over because you can't remember the controls or the plot. If you keep a [game journal](/blog/2026-08-13-keep-a-game-journal-without-homework), this is exactly what it's for. ![Red Dead Redemption 2 screenshot: a long open world worth parking properly rather than rushing](https://perthro.io/assets/blog/8f86e202560c5d70.jpg) ## Keep one short game for October The week before a big release is a strange time to play anything. You're distracted, you're watching trailers, and starting something long feels pointless. Save one short game for that week: something you can finish in a few evenings. A tight indie, a puzzle game, a game you've been meaning to try that's under ten hours. It gives you something to finish right before the big one, rather than drifting through the last week. ## Don't buy anything new This is the hardest rule and the most useful one. Between now and November 19, every new game you buy goes straight into the Finish pile or the Park pile, and usually it's Park. There'll be sales in October; plenty of them. If a game is on sale now, it will be on sale again in January. If you do buy something, make it a short game you'll finish before launch, or put it on a wishlist with a note about why you wanted it. Our guide to [buying games you'll actually play](/blog/2026-07-12-pick-next-steam-sale-game-without-backlog-worse) has more on keeping sales from growing the pile. ## Clear space on your console too An unglamorous but real part of getting ready: storage. GTA 6 is a new Rockstar open world, and it's very likely to be a large download. Rockstar hasn't announced a file size, but it makes sense to check your free space now rather than on launch night. If you've dropped or finished games from your list, uninstall them. Cloud saves on PS5 and Xbox mean you're not losing progress by doing so, but it's worth checking each game's save is backed up before you delete it. ## Launch day with a clear list The goal isn't an empty backlog. Nobody has one of those. The goal is to start GTA 6 with a short list of games you've deliberately parked, nothing nagging at you, and a few recent wins behind you. If you track your games in [Perthro](https://apps.apple.com/app/perthro/id6764673686), the Shelved status is built for the Park pile: it takes games off your "playing" list without pretending you've abandoned them.