Preorders of Grand Theft Auto 6 helped Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Rockstar Games, rake in over a billion dollars in their last fiscal quarter.
According to a recent earnings call, Take-Two earned $1.39 billion last quarter (April 1 to June 30), which includes the first five days preorders for GTA 6 opened. That insanely high number isn’t made up entirely by GTA 6 sales, as other sources of revenue, like NBA 2K27, contributed to the quarterly profit.
An “unprecedented” number of preorders
Since GTA 6 was first announced, industry analysts have always expected the game to bring in huge profits, given its status as one of the most anticipated titles of the year. However, despite these expectations, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick still expressed surprise over the immediate success of GTA 6’s preorders.
During the Take-Two quarterly earnings call, Strauss stated, “I can say that the level of pre-orders is unprecedented and astonishing, and we’re very grateful for that.” He went on to clarify that Take-Two can’t exactly place a solid number for profits on preorders, continuing, “but they are so unprecedented that we just don’t know how it’ll translate into sales, which is a question I answered earlier. We genuinely don’t, and we just don’t believe in claiming victory before it occurs.”
A solid number from preorders, for the purposes of financial reporting, likely can’t be confirmed until preorder sales are finalized when the game releases on November 19, as players could still cancel their preorders at this stage.
Rockstar’s pricing strategy pays off
Strauss went on to praise Rockstar’s pricing of Grand Auto 6, a topic that drew intense debate and speculation for months before the developers revealed the price of $80 for standard edition and $100 for ultimate edition (which gives players access to more stores, outfits, and missions).
“I think that Rockstar got it right in terms of the pricing of this standard edition and the pricing of the deluxe edition, and I think there’s no doubt that consumers are really excited about both and I think depending on your own ability to pay and how avid a consumer you are, you can choose between them. But the pre-orders have been exceptional, and we’re happy with the mix as well.”
Take-Two projects over $8 billion for 2027
In a letter to shareholders released after the earnings call, Strauss cited the success of GTA 6 to project future earnings, writing, “with these positive trends and excitement around the November 19th launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, we are reiterating our Fiscal 2027 Net Bookings outlook of $8.0 to $8.2 billion.”
The success of the opening of preorders for GTA 6, alongside the ongoing success of NBA 2k27, has made Take-Two confident 2027’s fiscal year will be more profitable than 2026’s, which ended with $6.72 billion.
While no surprise that one of the most hyped video games of the decade would make lots of money for both its developer and parent company, the exact figure projections are still impressive to see.
