According to a research company, Grand Theft Auto VI could bring in more than $3 billion in total revenues during the first 12 months after launch. A report from Financial Times cites data from DFC Intelligence that says GTA 6 could bring in $3.2 billion in its first year and that the game is likely to surpass $1 billion in preorder revenue alone.
The report didn’t mention how DFC might have arrived at these estimates or if they also included revenue from microtransactions and sales of any potential GTA VI premium editions. GameSpot has contacted DFC in an attempt to get more details.
GTA 6 earning a mountain of money would be one of the least-surprising pieces of news in video game history. After all, it’s the sequel to one of the world’s most popular video games, and hype for the open-world title is already massive and continues to grow.
For comparison, GTA 5 earned $1 billion in revenue after just 72 hours on sale back in September 2013. This did not include any GTA Online revenue, either, as GTA Online did not release until October 2013.
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick told FT that he would “never claim victory before it occurs.” However, Zelnick said he feels confident that Rockstar Games will release “something absolutely phenomenal.”
GTA 6 has been in development for many years already, though it wasn’t until February 2022 that Rockstar Games officially acknowledged the game’s existence. The FT report cited estimates for the game’s development costs (it didn’t mention marketing costs) as being between the “high hundreds of millions” to more than $2 billion, including costs for the game’s expected post-launch updates.
GTA 6 has enormous shoes to fill, as GTA 5 has sold more than 205 million copies, making it the No. 3 best-selling game ever, only behind Minecraft and Tetris.
GTA 6 is officially set for launch in Fall 2025, a window that Take-Two has committed to on multiple occasions. Some believe the game may slip to 2026, in part because every Rockstar game from the past decade has been delayed beyond its original publicly announced date. Others believe the game might have already been delayed internally, based on reports that GTA 6 has missed multiple internal deadlines.
What we do know is that Rockstar went an entire year without uttering a peep about GTA 6. The game’s first trailer debuted in December 2023. Many expected Rockstar to release the next trailer at some point in 2024, but that did not happen, despite the so-called evidence that fans believe they discovered. Zelnick recently said he understands fans are growing impatient, but Rockstar refuses to release the game until it’s ready.
