Grand Theft Auto 6 is projected to make an eye-watering $3 billion in its first 12 months on sale.
Rockstar’s hotly anticipated open-world crime caper is at the moment due out fall 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X and S, with no phrase on a PC launch for now.
A brand new report by the Financial Times, primarily based on evaluation by online game analysis group DFC Intelligence, predicts GTA 6 will exceed $1 billion in pre-orders earlier than it even launches. Stunning no-one, GTA 6 is anticipated to be the most important leisure launch of 2025, forward of any film or competing online game.
DFC predicted whole income from GTA 6’s first 12 months on sale will attain $3.2 billion. To place that into context, 2024’s highest-grossing film, Inside Out 2, made simply shy of $1.7 billion on the international field workplace. In 2013, it took Grand Theft Auto 5 simply three days to surpass $1 billion in gross sales — the quickest to that determine in leisure historical past.
Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar mum or dad firm Take-Two, informed the Monetary Instances: “I by no means declare victory earlier than it happens. That mentioned, I feel Rockstar Video games will as soon as once more ship one thing completely phenomenal… Actually the anticipation is excessive.”
The large projected income of GTA 6 is up towards equally large growth prices, which the Monetary Instances estimates from the excessive tons of of thousands and thousands to as a lot as $2 billion. There’s a lot riding on GTA 6, then, but not just for Take-Two and Rockstar. In March final 12 months, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella predicted Rockstar’s surefire hit would spark “renewed curiosity” in video video games, earlier than going one step additional: “There’s in all probability by no means been a extra essential factor to ever launch within the business, so no strain.”
GTA 6 is the sort of recreation that may promote consoles. Sony’s PS5 Pro will little doubt profit tremendously from curiosity in GTA 6, too. Let’s bear in mind: GTA 6 just isn’t popping out on PC at launch; to play you should personal a PlayStation or an Xbox. Past the purpose of sale, GTA 6’s GTA On-line equal will certainly come filled with microtransactions as the present GTA On-line does. Microsoft and Sony will get their lower of any cash spent there, too.
Because the Monetary Instances factors out, the virtually assured success of GTA 6 comes amid one of many hardest durations for the online game business in latest reminiscence. Greater than 33,000 individuals have misplaced their jobs since 2022, with large layoffs on the likes of Microsoft and Sony. Certainly, Take-Two itself has suffered layoffs and studio closures.
All eyes are on Rockstar for a agency GTA 6 launch date, or, as some are predicting, a delay into 2026. When you wait to seek out out, IGN has rather more on GTA 6 to take a look at, together with an ex-Rockstar dev who says the studio probably won’t be able to decide whether GTA 6 is delayed until May 2025, the boss of Take-Two’s coy response on whether GTA 6 is coming to PC, and the skilled opinion on whether the PS5 Pro will run GTA 6 at 60 frames per second.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
