Grand Theft Auto 6 is so close (kind of) that we can almost taste it (sort of). Despite the recent delay that pushed the game back to May 2026, Grand Theft Auto 6 remains the most highly anticipated title in history. That anticipation hasn’t slowed down sales of GTA 5, though. If anything, it has helped maintain them more than a decade after the game was released.
No game has a lifecycle quite like Grand Theft Auto 5, the world-changing title released in 2013. Even today, it’s selling more copies per quarter than most games will sell in their lifetimes.
Stellar Performance
In a recent financial update, Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold a staggering 215 million units. With each successive financial update, the sales ticker for GTA 5 soars by another five million units.
In February 2024, it climbed by five million quarter-over-quarter; in November 2024, it did the same thing again.
That’s easily more copies than most titles will sell in their entire lives on the open market, and this 12-year-old game is doing it time and again. That’s nothing short of a stellar performance that will likely persist until GTA 6 drops in May 2026.
The recent financial update from Take-Two Interactive gushed over Grand Theft Auto, honouring the recent record-setting performance of the new GTA 6 trailer, amongst other things. The team stated that the long-awaited video secured more than 475 million views in just 24 hours.
In the United States, GTA 5 remains the best-selling title of the last ten years, which is by no means a small feat.
Red Dead isn’t doing too badly, either. The series has just crept over 100 million copies sold. Now, if they could just get working on that 60 FPS patch…
Are you still playing GTA 5? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Marathon morale is collapsing at Bungie
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Get ready for the Switch 2 release:)
Will outsell 6 too. 6 will never surpass 5. Honestly they should remake 5.