GTA 6 pre-orders top $1 billion a week before launch, Sensor Tower estimates

Grand Theft Auto VI has earned about $1 billion before its release next Thursday, 19 November, according to estimates by the market data firm Sensor Tower. Its GTA VI sales tracker showed 10.31 million digital pre-orders on PlayStation and Xbox as of Wednesday, 11 November. The figures are an outside estimate, not official data. Neither Rockstar Games nor its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has disclosed pre-order numbers, and Sensor Tower has not said how it calculates them.

Three in four on PlayStation

Sensor Tower counts 7.73 million pre-orders for PlayStation 5, worth $751 million, and 2.58 million for Xbox Series X|S, worth $250 million. There is no PC version to pre-order. Dividing revenue by copies gives about $97 a copy. On the US PlayStation Store the Standard Edition costs $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition $99.99, which suggests many buyers are choosing the more expensive version. Prices vary by country.

A late surge

Pre-orders opened on 25 June, and Sensor Tower estimates that about 2.2 million copies sold on the first day. Sales slowed over the summer, and the count stood at about 4 million at the end of July. It reached 7.71 million on 2 November and 10.31 million on 11 November, an increase of about 2.6 million in nine days. Pre-loading opened on 10 November for those who have pre-ordered, but the game cannot be played until 19 November.

How it compares with GTA V and Cyberpunk 2077

GTA V, the previous game in the series, took three days after its 2013 release to reach $1 billion, which Take-Two then described as the fastest of any entertainment release. If Sensor Tower is right, GTA VI has passed that mark before launch. The numbers are not directly comparable: the GTA V figure was the publisher’s own estimate of retail sales, while the new one is an outside estimate of digital pre-orders on two consoles. The previous pre-order record confirmed by a publisher belongs to Cyberpunk 2077, at about 8 million.

Take-Two waits for launch

Take-Two reported quarterly results on 9 November but gave no pre-order figure. Its chief executive, Strauss Zelnick, said only that pre-orders were continuing to reach “unprecedented levels”. On a call with investors he said the company avoids claiming success before it happens and would say more once the game is on sale. Take-Two kept its full-year outlook unchanged, expecting net bookings of $8 billion to $8.2 billion for the financial year ending 31 March 2027.