GTA VI Preorders Pass $750 Million, Sensor Tower Estimates

Key Notes

• Sensor Tower estimates 7.71 million GTA VI digital preorders and $751 million in revenue, with both measures net of returns as of November 3.
• PS5 accounts for 74% of tracked orders, with estimated revenue of $559 million against $192 million on Xbox Series X|S.
• The figures are third-party estimates accumulated before launch, so they do not establish a new first-day sales record or Rockstar’s profit.

Grand Theft Auto VI has generated an estimated $751 million in digital preorder revenue across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, according to Sensor Tower. The figure puts Rockstar Games’ next release within sight of GTA V’s first-day dollar total, although the two measurements cover very different sales windows.

Sensor Tower’s public sales tracker, last updated November 3, estimates 7.71 million copies ordered before the game’s November 19 launch. Its revenue and unit figures are both labeled net of returns. They are third-party estimates, rather than a Rockstar or Take-Two sales announcement.

PS5 Accounts for 74% of Preorders

PlayStation is responsible for roughly three-quarters of the tracked orders. Sensor Tower puts PS5 at 5.74 million copies and $559 million in revenue, compared with 1.97 million copies and $192 million on Xbox Series X|S.

The tracker rounds the platform split to 74% for PS5 and 26% for Xbox. Those percentages describe this game’s estimated console preorders, rather than the overall console market or the eventual distribution of its full-launch sales.

The total has also increased substantially since mid-October. Insider Gaming reported a Sensor Tower snapshot of $630 million and 6.45 million copies on October 20. Compared with that snapshot, the November 3 figures are about $121 million and 1.26 million copies higher.

Sensor Tower notes that it revised the preorder model on October 5 to better reflect estimated country splits, affecting global revenue, units and the console mix. The dashboard is a modeled view of demand, and its revenue figure should not be treated as profit or evidence that development and marketing costs have been recovered.

GTA V’s Launch Record Uses a Different Window

Take-Two reported more than $800 million in worldwide first-day retail sales for GTA V after its September 17, 2013 launch. That company estimate excluded Japan and Brazil, where the game had not yet launched.

It subsequently announced that worldwide retail sales had exceeded $1 billion within three days. GTA V initially arrived on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

GTA VI’s estimated preorder revenue is approaching the earlier game’s first-day dollar figure, but it has accumulated across months of advance purchases. That comparison shows the scale of committed demand; it does not establish that GTA VI has already beaten a launch-day record. It also compares a third-party preorder model with a publisher’s retail-sales estimate from a different console generation.

November 10 Preloading Comes Before Launch

For buyers who have already ordered, the next milestone is downloading the game. We covered Rockstar’s updated November 10 preload plan and its guidance to allow up to 212 GB of free storage, depending on the console.

Rockstar’s announcement separates preloading from playing: downloading in advance does not unlock the game before its November 19 release. PS5 preloads open at midnight in each player’s local time zone, while Xbox downloads open worldwide at midnight GMT.

Those staggered download arrangements give players time to clear space and install the files before release. The preorder tracker measures purchases made ahead of that point; Rockstar’s launch and subsequent sales disclosures will provide a different measure of how many people ultimately buy the game.