GTA6 on Xbox and PS5 could make £3.85 billion in sales in its first week alone
An analysis of the pre-order spending on the upcoming guns and gangsters hit video game suggests sales of Grand Theft Auto 6 could break records come launch in November
GTA6 is out in November
Gaming blockbuster Grand Theft Auto 6 is predicted to generate eye-watering sales of up to £3.85 billion in its first week on sale.
Analysts said roughly $180 million in digital preorders have been made across the US and the five biggest European markets for the upcoming guns and gangsters PS5 blockbuster.
And experts believe that indicates record-breaking sales across the world as gamers battle for a copy of the much-wanted sequel to 2013’s action hit GTA5.
Newzoo analysis compared that game’s player distribution across PCs and consoles to then estimate global first-week preorder spending for GTA6 at approximately $260m (£200m).
Based on comparable preorder curves, GTA 6 is currently tracking toward $3.25bn (£2.42bn) to $5.2bn (£3.85bn) in cumulative sales by the end of launch week in November.
It features two playable protagonists: Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval
Ronan Patrick, management consultant at Newzoo, said: “The first week of preorders generated an estimated $260 million in global digital spending, the largest opening Newzoo has observed.
“For a title launching in November 2026, the scale of demand this far ahead of release is rare, even among the industry’s biggest franchises.
“Historically, preorder launches of this scale have been associated with the biggest commercial releases.”
He added: “Contrary to social media reports, GTA6 has not done a billion dollars in preorders 21 weeks out.
“This is absurd.
“Given how preorder curves look, nothing ever has and nothing ever will in the near future.
“What the data actually shows is $180 million in digital preorder spend across the US and the five largest European markets in the final week of June, translating to a global opening week of roughly $260 million, with most of the ramp still ahead.
“Run that figure through the plausible band of preorder curves, and GTA6 is on track to book between $3.25 billion and $5.2 billion in week-one launch revenue.
“Even at the most conservative reading, namely that GTA6 front-loads harder than any major title in our dataset, it lands at a tremendous number by any historical standard.”
The open-world hit will take in land, sea and air
For comparison, GTA5 set records for generating $1 billion in three days after going on sale back in 2013.
That made it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, beating out the likes of hit Marvel superhero movie Avengers: Endgame.
GTA6 seems certain to hit the $1 billion mark faster.
The game, due out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only on November 19, may well be the most expensive video game ever made, with parent company Take-Two estimated to have spent $1-1.5 billion so far.
Maker Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick wouldn’t say how much the company had spent on GTA 6 so far, but did admit “it was expensive.”
