To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Rockstar’s GTA 6 is already putting up huge pre-order sales ahead of launch. According to Sensor Tower‘s latest estimates (reported by GamesIndustry), the massively anticipated open world game has already surpassed 6 million digital preorders worldwide as of October 13, generating around $594 million in revenue. Both figures are net of returns, and Sony’s PlayStation platform, once again predictably, accounts for nearly three-quarters of the estimated units.
The platform breakdown puts PlayStation at 4.51 million preorders, compared with 1.57 million on Xbox, translating to a 74%–26% split. Estimated revenue follows a similar pattern, with $441 million attributed to PlayStation and $153 million to Xbox. These are, of course, third-party estimates rather than sales figures officially announced by Rockstar or Take-Two, but they offer a useful indication of the scale of demand.
The second slide is perhaps even more impressive: Sensor Tower data shows that GTA 6’s digital preorders in the US are literally off the charts compared to any other game released in the past six years. The analyst firm measured each game’s trajectories at equivalent points in the run-up to release, highlighting a 148% advantage for GTA 6 over the game that had performed best (2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II).
The comparison also includes big titles like Diablo IV, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Wolverine, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us Part II, Starfield, and Ghost of Tsushima. All of them are positioned far below Modern Warfare II, but they’re closer to MWII than Infinity Ward’s game is to GTA 6; moreover, the slide even shows a separate line tracking only its premium $100 SKU, which also remains miles above every other tracked game.
There are important limits to these figures, though. The worldwide totals cover digital preorders, while the historical comparison is restricted to the United States. Neither slide provides physical preorder totals, and Sensor Tower qualifies its six-year claim as applying only to the games it tracks, though, of course, those tend to be the best-selling ones.
Even with those caveats in mind, the main takeaway is still that GTA 6 is well-poised to break records not only across the gaming industry but across the whole entertainment sector. Previous estimates by Piper Sandler suggest the game could sell upwards of 48 million units in the launch week, which would easily make it the best-selling entertainment launch of all time. Of course, making GTA 6 also cost Rockstar a ton of money, but chances are it won’t take them long to recoup their costs and start earning profits.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.
In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.
Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.
His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
Products mentioned
