Somehow Rockstar's blockbuster game, launched way back in 2013, managed to speed ahead of more recent AAA hits again.
Beating both FIFA 18 and God of War, Grand Theft Auto 5 has topped the PlayStation Store's June charts as the most downloaded game of the month on PlayStation 4.
GTA 5 has this tendency to pop back to the top of sales and downloads charts, seemingly at random, and beating out other major releases that launched just weeks or months earlier, certainly not several years!
Sure, GTA 5 has the advantage of never dropping off those charts in the first place, simply moving up or down every now and then, but we are talking about a 5-year-old game here.
Last month not only did this recurring record breaker rack up more downloads than FIFA's latest installment, but it also beat the universally praised and critically acclaimed God of War.
We can only conclude that it doesn't matter how well-made or heartfelt your game is, if you recycle titles without rebooting the franchise just to screw with everyone's filing systems, GTA 5 will overcome it either way.
What's more, Grand Theft Auto as a franchise made its presence felt in more ways than one.
GTA: San Andreas topped the PS Classics charts for downloads in June too, with GTA: Vice City coming in at 7th place on that same chart. Two GTA games on the same chart, Two GTA games taking #1, and three GTA games across all of PlayStation's charts? That is one hell of an achievement.
This is a perfect example of what we mean when saying that a measure of success akin to that of GTA 5 will likely never be achieved once more.
Games have been popular in the past, but for a 5-year-old title to pop up on the forefront of download charts is unprecedented, and yet GTA 5 keeps doing it.
Hype surrounding the upcoming nightclub themed DLC generated via the Guest List promotion is no doubt a strong factor in this most recent resurgence.
Nightclubs have been a hotly requested and anticipated feature and Rockstar is making the most of it with a promotion-heavy lead-up that includes free GTA$ and other bonuses.
The continued content support of GTA Online, the game's multiplayer mode, is a major contributor to the longevity of the game so it makes sense to capitalize on this opportunity.
A Rockstar title rising to the top of the download charts on the PlayStation is doubly interesting considering the deal between Sony and Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company. The two have a long history together and to some extent, the PlayStation can be considered the "home" of modern GTA. They also have a timed-exclusivity deal on post-launch content for the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2.
We wouldn't be surprised if the game kept this position until, or rockets back up after, the release of the nightclub DLC.
