The long-awaited but inevitable 100 million sales milestone has arrived. Grand Theft Auto 5 has been consistently hitting major sales milestones even years after launch. It's been a while since we last heard about the 95 million mark but nobody doubted that we'd hit 100.
On its latest quarterly investor call, Take-Two Interactive reported an increase in quarter-over-quarter revenue with the closure of Q2 Fiscal 2019. GTA 5 and the popularity of Online are cited as major contributors to revenue, which they have been ever since release in 2013. For five years now has this game been one of the major financial pillars of Take-Two.
Recently, GTA 5 broke another major record. It is the single best selling entertainment product ever, generating more profits than any other video game, movie, TV series or song in history. This huge achievement came soon after reaching the 95 million sales mark. The game became the best selling non-bundled game of all time not too long ago as well.
We've covered the unnatural phenomenon that is GTA 5's continued success multiple times at length. Somehow, five years after release, this is a game that still manages to rake in upward trending sales. It has defied just about every standard market model for shelf-life performance. Even the biggest AAA titles taper off a year or two after release, but GTA 5 just keeps on going.
The causes of this particular outlying statistic are complex and arguable. However, the main factors likely include mainstream appeal and recognition, a huge marketing push, a staggered release schedule that coincided with the launch of the new console generation and the continued DLC support.
Not only does the GTA IP have a decade of popularity to draw upon, but the game was released, then re-released, then re-re-released over the course of three years keeping it relevant.
To this day Rockstar continues to support GTA Online. We're eager to find out what lies in the game's future now that Red Dead Redemption 2 is also a major success.
