Rockstar Games
GTA 6 could generate between $3.25 billion and $5.2 billion in sales by the end of its launch week, according to a new forecast based on the game’s record-breaking pre-order campaign.
Pre-orders for Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated sequel opened on June 25, months before its November 19 release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
The hype for Grand Theft Auto VI is already sky-high as players are anxiously waiting to return to Vice City and explore the state of Leonida. Expectations are through the roof, with insiders claiming the game is so advanced, no other studio will be able to top it for 20 years.
So, exactly how big is the hype? Let’s talk numbers. Market intelligence firm Newzoo estimates that players spent roughly $180 million on digital pre-orders during the final week of June across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
Using GTA 5’s player distribution to account for other regions, the firm estimated that GTA 6 generated approximately $260 million in global pre-order sales during its opening week.
Newzoo called it the strongest start to a pre-order campaign ever recorded in its dataset. However, the company also disputed viral claims that GTA 6 had already made $1 billion from pre-orders.
Rockstar Games
GTA 6 could sell over 50 million copies during launch week
Newzoo used several pre-order sales curves to predict how much GTA 6 could earn once it is released.
The firm believes the game will most closely follow the pattern of a “proven sequel,” where an established franchise attracts a larger percentage of its eventual customers early in the pre-order window.
Under that model, GTA 6 would make around $4.5 billion by the end of launch week. That would represent approximately 51 million copies sold at an assumed average price of $88.
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A more conservative model, which assumes demand is unusually front-loaded, still places the game at $3.25 billion and around 37 million copies. Newzoo’s complete range extends as high as $5.2 billion.
Rockstar Games
The figures remain projections rather than an official sales forecast from Rockstar or parent company Take-Two. They also include pre-orders accumulated before release rather than purchases made solely during the seven days after launch.
This all comes as Rockstar has yet to reveal gameplay footage and has only released two trailers at the time of writing. That said, leaks confirmed to be legitimate by Rockstar have indicated that GTA 6 will feature a series of new, innovative features.
GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026, with the standard edition priced at $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition costing $99.99.
