“Grand Theft Auto VI” has reportedly surpassed an estimated $1 billion in sales a week before its release, driven by roughly 10 million preorders across PlayStation 5 and Xbox platforms, according to market research firm Sensor Tower.
The upcoming title arrives on November 19, bringing players back to Vice City. Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick described preorder demand for the game as unprecedented during an earnings call, helping push Take-Two Interactive shares up more than 8% to $224.
“running far in excess of our expectations,” Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told Variety said that presales are running far beyond what the company anticipated. While Rockstar Games has not publicly confirmed exact preorder results, Zelnick said that the company will provide further details regarding postlaunch performance.
Earlier figures released by Sensor Tower estimated that digital pre-orders reached approximately 7.71 million units ahead of launch, representing roughly $751 million in potential revenue.
Karl Kontus, senior vice president at Sensor Tower and general manager of Video Game Insights, suggested that consumer demand is heavily front-loaded in the pre-launch window and projected that preorders could reach around 25 million by the time the game debuts.
“We expect to deliver an historic year for our company,” Zelnick said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For the July through September period, Take-Two reported overall game revenue of $1.38 billion alongside $121 million in ad sales, while sales for “NBA 2K” came in softer than expected. Wall Street analysts tracked by LSEG had previously anticipated an earnings per share loss of 86 cents on $1.66 billion in revenue.
Sensor Tower’s sales tracker indicates that the PlayStation 5 accounts for about 75 percent of purchases. Platform-specific estimates show that the PlayStation 5 generates roughly $559 million of the projected revenue, whereas the Xbox Series X|S accounts for about 26% of pre-orders, translating to roughly $192 million.
Early downloads opened on November 10 across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, requiring up to 212 GB of free space depending on the console.
Technical performance targets include 30 frames per second on current-generation consoles. Rockstar Games said that the PlayStation 5 Pro version will deliver sharper graphics and include exclusive ray-traced shadows.
Players can stream the title on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S using Xbox Cloud Gaming, using Xbox Series S graphics settings subject to internet connection speeds.
Pricing is set at $79.99 for the standard edition and $99.99 for the ultimate version, as reported by Variety.
Sensor Tower estimates show that 89% of preorders went toward the $100 Ultimate Edition, while 11% selected the $80 Standard Edition.
Zelnick said that announcements regarding personal computers, the Nintendo Switch 2, or physical discs originate directly from the publishing labels and left those details to Rockstar.
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