If you are wondering why Rockstar doesn’t seem in a huge rush to bring out the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, you’re not alone. Even though Grand Theft Auto VI is reportedly “well under way,” it has still been nearly a decade since GTA V was first released. Why such a long gap? It is probably because GTA V continues to sell an absurd number of copies.
According to Take-Two’s recent earnings report, GTA V has sold a total of 160 million copies across all platforms. This accounts for nearly half of the 370 million units that the GTA franchise has sold as of the last quarter of 2021. According to the same earnings report, GTA V has become the best-selling game of the last decade in the US, both in unit and dollar sales. Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold nearly 43 million units and is the second best-selling title in the US over the past three years.
It is hard to overstate how successful that makes Grand Theft Auto V. The best way to explain it is to compare it to other game franchises in history. Gaming journalist James Schreier tossed out these numbers on Twitter.
Up until Valhalla, the Assassin’s Creed franchise had sold 155 million copies, meaning that GTA V has outsold every other game in the Assassin’s Creed series up to Valhalla.
As of September 2021, the Final Fantasy series, one of the most iconic and longest-running JRPG series ever, has sold 164 million copies of all its games dating back to 1987.
As of December 2021, Resident Evil has sold 123 million copies of every game in its history combined.
This sheds little light on why Rockstar hasn’t felt compelled to follow up on GTA V quickly. The game’s online mode continues to make them money and still has sales potential with the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions due to launch on March 15. Between GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 posting these kinds of sales numbers, things are looking very strong for Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive.
