Let that figure sink in for just a moment.
Grand Theft Auto V, a game which, at seven years old, should by rights have slipped out of relevancy several years ago, continues to sell copies in its millions on a regular basis. The eye-watering number you see above was confirmed earlier this week in publisher Take-Two’s latest financial briefing with investors, cementing its status as the second highest-selling video game of all time, behind only Mojang’s Minecraft in the sheer volume of sales.
For those seeking even more context, industry analyst Danial Ahmad, having crunched the numbers, reports that the fifth entry in Rockstar’s absurdly popular creation now accounts for 40% of total franchise sales, with the series now sitting at 325 million units sold as a whole. And because those accolades aren’t already enough, NPD Group reports that GTA V also was the best-selling game of the last decade in North America.
Impressive, to say the least, but these tallies are far from final.
With Grand Theft Auto 6 believed to still be a long way off and GTA Online proving to be more popular now than it arguably ever has been, expect to see even further increases in the months and years to come. This is the same game, after all, that pushed an additional 10 million units to consumers between February and May of this year alone. Oh, and it’s worth noting, too, that none of the above takes into account any copies of Grand Theft Auto V given away for free such as Epic Games’ recent promotion or one held earlier this year by Microsoft via its Game Pass subscription service.
The takeaway, if any, from all of this is that at the very least, GTA Online is here to stay, perhaps even to the extent that it’ll continue to thrive long after the launch of the series’ sixth installment.