Grand Theft Auto VI (the new chapter of one of the most famous video games in the world, the open-world action saga from Rockstar Games), exceeds 1 billion dollars in estimated revenues before even debuting on the market. According to the findings of the analysis company Sensor Tower reported by the Washington Post, pre-orders have exceeded 10 million copies between PlayStation 5 and Xbox.
Record pulverized
PlayStation 5 absorbs approximately 75% of pre-ordered copies, leaving 25% for the Xbox Series X|S platforms. The data shatters the internal record of the series: in 2013 Grand Theft Auto V took three days after its release to reach the billion dollar mark, becoming the fastest-earning entertainment product in history. By way of comparison, according to data certified by Guinness World Records, the “fastest” film in global box office receipts remains Avengers: Endgame (2019), which reached one billion in five days.
The European launch window is set at midnight on Thursday 19 November 2026. In Italy and in countries with the Central European Time Zone (CET), the title developed by the American company will be playable from midnight on 19 November, while the digital pre-download on Sony and Microsoft servers is active from 10 November with a weight of around 210-212 GB.
The digital code
On the retail front, chains like Mediaworld allow in-store collection and delivery starting from November 18th (with shipments starting from November 12th). The logistical advance depends on the absence of the physical disc: the packages sold at retail contain only a digital code (code-in-a-box). The early delivery is used by buyers to redeem the voucher on the PlayStation or Xbox stores and pre-load the files avoiding saturation of the networks, while the actual launch of the software remains blocked by the servers until midnight on November 19th.
Meanwhile, the wave of pre-sales supports the parent company Take-Two Interactive on the Nasdaq (ticker Ttwo). Despite a quarterly closing with net bookings down 18% to 1.6 billion dollars, the stock gained over 21% in eight sessions, closing at 231.31 dollars on 11 November. CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed unprecedented pre-order levels, keeping the guidance on net bookings unchanged for the entire fiscal year 2027 between 8 and 8.2 billion dollars.
An infinite and “mythological” production
It wasn’t a simple “birth”. Set in the fictional state of Leonidas (a satirical and hyper-realistic version of Florida dominated by the neon beaches of Vice City and the swamps of the Everglades), Gta VI puts players in the shoes of the robbery couple Lucia and Jason. Between armed assaults, high-speed escapes and the management of illicit trafficking in the social media era, the plot alternates the criminal climb of the two protagonists with the free exploration of an enormous, lively and unpredictable metropolis.
Too many hours of work
The development of the title began in 2014, immediately after the launch of the fifth chapter, but came into full swing only after the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. Unlike its predecessors, the work is guided by a profound cultural change within Rockstar Games: after the controversy over overtime working hours (“crunch”, developers having to endure exhausting hours), the studio reorganizes production under the guidance of Sam Houser – who remained at the helm after the exit of co-founder and historic screenwriter Dan Houser in 2020 – extending development times to guarantee quality standards and, at the same time, work sustainability for employees.
Officially confirmed in February 2022 and hit a few months later by one of the largest leaks in gaming history with the release of ninety test videos, the project required over eight years of actual production and a budget estimated by several industry analysts to be over a billion dollars, making it the most expensive entertainment production ever made. The release date itself has been postponed several times. Until next, highly anticipated, week.
How many copies will be sold
THE comparative analysis models (based on the installed base of over 100 million PS5s and future releases on PCs and next generation consoles) project overall sales between 180 and over 235 million copies in the long term, with the aim of equaling or exceeding the historical benchmark of Gta V (stationary at 235 million units sold since 2013). The departure, for now, promises to be with a bang.