GTA V Has Achieved A Huge Record
Grand Theft Auto V has sold a stunning 170 million copies.
This article is more than 2 years old
It would seem that everyone finally owns a copy of GTA V, Rockstar’s best-selling, multi-generational gaming title. Take-Two Interactive announced that GTA V sold over 170 million copies, while Red Dead Redemption has hit the 70 million mark. This is a massive success for the studio, which is currently working on GTA 6, with rumors suggesting a whole lineup of smaller titles following the upcoming GTA 6 launch.
According to IGN, Take-Two revealed sales numbers for both Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises. As a franchise, GTA sold over 385 million units, with more than 170 million copies attributed to 2013’s GTA V, which recently got its PlayStation 5 remake and a new DLC. These are impressive numbers, considering that Rockstar’s best-selling game made more sales than entire AAA gaming franchises. See that Ubisoft, there’s no need for a new Assassin’s Creed every two years; just make a good one that’ll last us for a decade.
GTA V also holds a record for the highest-earning release, garnering $1 billion in sales in only three days. This is the highest-earning release in entertainment history, which was nearly overshadowed by the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. The world’s most famous shooter made some $800 million in the first three days following its release, breaking the franchise’s earning record and posing as this year’s highest-earning entertainment release. Of course, the Call of Duty franchise still leads in the sales department with over 425 million copies sold.
With everything said, the same report also stated that the GTA V sales are finally slowing down, with the franchise selling less than 1 million copies in the July-September period. Considering that the game has been shipping multi-millions worth of copies every quarter since its release in 2013, this was the worst quarter in GTA V’s history in terms of sales. Still, despite the slower sales performance, the game generated enough revenue to exceed Take-Two’s projections, as its Online component continues to perform quite well, even after losing the PS3 platform.
Looking ahead, the company will continue its support for GTA V Online with additional content updates and seasonal-theme offerings for its massive gaming community. Popular MMOs never die, which is evident by World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion, so it is safe to assume that GTA V Online will remain the bee’s knee until the release of GTA 6 and its online component — perhaps even longer if the purported game encounters launch issues. We would hate to see it go through the same release as the long-awaited The Trilogy.
GTA V was originally released in 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with later ports to PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And though it had its next-gen ports, which helped propel it to 385 million sales, the game was never released on Nintendo Switch. The release of the upcoming GTA 6 is likely to push those numbers past 500 million sales and reinvigorate the entire franchise, but Take-Two hasn’t indicated a release date.
As things currently are, the game is expected to launch in 2025-2026.
