That Grand Theft Auto 5 is a highly successful title shouldn't be news to anyone, as this has unwaveringly been the case for four years now.
However, the extent to which it is still a success continues to amaze. Even though the game is showing the earliest signs of slowing down a tad, GTA 5 is still powering forward and moving huge numbers of copies, not to mention generating loads of revenue through microtransactions.
In fact, if analysts have it right, a new sales milestone might be announced two weeks from now, when Take-Two will hold its investor call to report earnings. Stock market analysts take several factors into account during their audits in order to rate companies, but thanks to GTA 5, Take-Two is doing good from all angles.
Smuggler's Run is said to have done its part in ensuring the game remains a hot topic among fans and prospective players. Even in the latter half of the year, the game's search metrics were only a quarter down from around the yearly high that was caused by the hype around Gunrunning.
Analysts have always been generous when it comes to Take-Two ever since the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, but even now, Evan Wingren, a renowned analyst, has increased his already overweight predicted price target from US$104 to US$119 per share.
This year's earlier quarter, around the time of the release of the Gunrunning DLC, was when interest in the game peaked — that's right, four years after release. At the end of 2016 Rockstar Games reported that the December of that year (The release of Import/Export) was the peak at the time, however this indicates that subsequent DLCs have helped the game one-up itself.
Due to the spread over so many platforms, it has become impossible to get accurate real-time figures (unlike games that are exclusive to, say, Steam, where analytics are easier to track). However continued popularity and sales suggest that GTA Online very well might be at its highest active player count currently.
Earlier this month, Take-Two's stock price hit an all-time high at US$107.53 per share, and as always, scuttlebutt says that was thanks to GTA Online. Currently the company is sitting at US$105.43, it's total market cap outstripping many other major public game publishers.
All these raw figures might seem awfully dry on the first glance, but they do tell us something quite clearly — GTA Online is doing more than fine.
After having happily trudged through so many years of peak popularity, the game has survived plenty of "oh, it can't last much longers", and yet, here we are. At this point, it's almost certain that the only thing that could put an end to GTA 5's success is another GTA game.
