Grand Theft Auto VI has about 7.71 million digital pre-orders worth $751 million (about Php 47.7 billion), with about 74% on PS5, according to estimates from Sensor Tower’s tracker. That’s a model from the analytics firm, last updated November 3rd – not a count directly from Rockstar or its parent, Take-Two. Neither company has published a pre-order number.
The PS5 reportedly has 5.74 million of those copies and $559 million (about Php 35.5 billion), against 1.97 million and $192 million (about Php 12.2 billion) on Xbox Series X|S. Pre-orders opened on June 25th, and the tracker’s chart shows 3.22 million by June 30th. The two weeks from October 18th, just after the launch trailer, added 1.25 million, the biggest two-week gain since that opening rush.
The revenue works out to about $97 (about Php 6,160) a copy, close to the $99.99 (about Php 6,350) Ultimate Edition and well above the $79.99 (about Php 5,080) Standard Edition. Sensor Tower put the pricier edition at 89% of pre-orders in August, and Karl Kontus, who runs its Video Game Insights business, told GamesIndustry.biz he’d never seen a share that high.
He expected most pre-orders to come in the last week or so before launch, ending up around 25 million, with those late buyers splitting closer to 50/50. So far, the copies added since October 18th still average about $97.
Sensor Tower’s October slide of this same dashboard labels its numbers global digital estimates, which leaves out boxed copies, sold only as the Standard Edition. The tracker counts sales net of returns, but it doesn’t say how the model works.
Sensor Tower previously updated the model on October 5th and says that had a small impact. The tracker showed 77% of pre-orders on PlayStation in mid-August, and it now shows 74% for that date. So we’d read 7.71 million as a rough size, not a sales count.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told GamesIndustry.biz back in August that pre-orders were “unprecedented and astonishing,” but that “we just don’t know how it’ll translate into sales.” Take-Two reports its next results on November 9th, pre-load starts on November 10th, and the game launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19th.
