Looks like GTA5 is on track to make that $1 billion week. As of today, it’s launch day has seen sales reach $800 million. This is excluding the upcoming launch in Japan. The figures today represent between 13 and 14 million units easily beating GTA4’s 13 million units sold. There will, no doubt, be further confirmation of the actual numbers for today and through the remainder of the week, but this is an amazing day for the Grand Theft Auto franchise and for video gaming in general.
The video game market has been up and down for a long time, and even with the ginormous success of the new Halo and Call of Duty installments, it still had a tough time last year. Could the market rebound big time with the next Grand Theft Auto?
First of all, we’re amazed to realize GTA is sixteen years old. The new edition of the game is out, and the New York Times raved, calling it “the best plotted, most playable, character-driven, fictionally coherent entry” in the series. The video game pundits also feel the game could make a cool billion, and move 20 million copies.
As IGN reports, one analyst said that “Given the significantly higher installed base of relevant console platforms at launch, great sales concentration among the top video game franchises, and unprecedented pent up demand, we expect GTA 5 to outpace GTA 4 sales, and generate roughly $1 billion in retail sales during the first month.”
First day sales aren’t in yet, but another group of analysts think it will move 6.5 million units, and make $400 million. That’s a lot for its first day out in the world, and it would completely blow away the previous performance of GTA 4, which has sold close to 25 million units since it came out in 2008.
