That's not what is meant by "anticipated release", though.
FIFA2025 will outsell GTA VI. No one is biting their nails waiting for it to happen. It is in no way a highly anticipated release.
GTA VI is a pretty highly anticipated release, yes, but to compare it half life 3 is... Silly.
By this metric, Half Life 3 is way, way way way more highly anticipated. Steam servers would go offline.