Owner Take-Two reveals Grand Theft Auto V has sold over 145 million copies to date, which accounts for approximately 42 percent of all GTA series sales. The 145 million units figure on its own is already massively impressive and something few game franchises have achieved in sum, but that’s still only approaching half of total franchise sales.
Despite initially releasing for the seventh console generation in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 is still very successful. It still celebrated record-breaking player counts and heaps of new copies being sold in 2020, with interest in Rockstar Games’ eight-year-old title having yet to wane. Despite its age, Rockstar’s steady stream of GTA Online content has kept players coming back for more for years. By now, many would assume that anyone who wanted GTA 5 would already own it, but the game’s audience only continues to grow annually.
In its latest earnings call, Take-Two Interactive revealed that Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold 145 million copies, which accounts for about 42 percent of the franchise’s total sales. For reference, there have been 11 Grand Theft Auto games (including spin-offs) that have sold roughly 340 million units total, and the second highest-selling game in the series, Grand Theft Auto 4, has sold 25 million copies. The game will likely only continue to sell as GTA 5 releases for new platforms in November, making it the second re-release of the game for improved hardware.
By this point, it almost goes without saying that there’s an audience that will re-purchase the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S for whatever new content and features Rockstar adds. The developer is also heavily expected to be developing Grand Theft Auto VI, though it hasn’t confirmed as much. Given the last entry’s extended profitability, it’s probable that Take-Two and Rockstar are in no rush to release another, giving Rockstar’s studio’s ample time to try to recapture GTA 5‘s success.
Rockstar is also reportedly working on a remaster of the original GTA trilogy, another release that is sure to sell like hot cakes if real. The first three Grand Theft Auto games sold about 53.5 million copies collectively, so it would be interesting to see if a remastered collection could pull those numbers once again, if not surpass them. Remaster trilogy or no, GTA 6 is all but destined to sell another boatload of units, but it’s unclear if it will dethrone Grand Theft Auto 5 as the most successful entertainment product of all-time.
Grand Theft Auto V is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
