GTA franchise has sold more copies than there are people in US and Canada

In its Q3 2024 earnings call on Thursday, Take-Two Interactive, the owners of Rockstar Games, announced that Grand Theft Auto 5 has now sold over 195 million copies, and Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold over 61 million.

Grand Theft Auto as a whole franchise has sold over 420 million units, more than the populations of the US and Canada combined.

This means that since its last earnings call in November, Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold an additional five million copies. This suggests that the announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6, which is due in 2o25, has had a buoyant effect on the rest of the franchise. This was acknowledged by Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two.

“I do think that excitement around GTA 6 has had a halo effect on the entire franchise,” Zelnick said during the call.

Despite this, Take-Two reported a 3% year-on-year decrease, with net bookings sitting at $1.34 billion. This translated to a net loss for the gaming giant of $91.6 million. Although recurrent consumer spending (microtransactions and subscriptions) accounted for 75% of their total bookings, this was down 7% year-on-year.

As a result, Zelnick expressed that the company is working on a “cost reduction program” that will “maximize margins while still investing for growth.” Despite a nod to developers in the statement (“Our Company’s potential is vast and unique, driven by our creative talent”) it is likely to concern staff with the state of the gaming industry at the moment being rife with layoffs.

What games do Take-Two have upcoming?

Alongside the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, Take-Two is set to release multiple games in the next two years which are sure to be a hit with franchise fans. Zynga will be releasing a mobile Game of Thrones game as well as a Star Wars game which will be on mobile and Nintendo Switch.

On top of that, there’s Tales of the Shire, a cozy Lord of the Rings game set in the home of the Hobbits, which is coming out on PC and consoles in 2024 and is causing huge excitement in Lord of the Rings fans and cozy gamers alike.

Featured image credit: Take-Two Interactive

Ali Rees

Freelance journalist

Ali Rees is a freelance writer based in the UK. They have worked as a data and analytics consultant, a software tester, and a digital marketing and SEO specialist.

They have been a keen gamer and tech enthusiast since their childhood in are currently the Gaming and Tech editor at Brig Newspaper. They also have a Substack where they review short video games.
During the pandemic, Ali turned their hand to live streaming and is a fan of Twitch. When not writing, Ali enjoys playing video and board games, live music, and reading. They have two cats and both of them are idiots.