No game in PlayStation Store history has been pre-ordered as much as GTA 6, Sony announced on the PlayStation Blog. The same day, Microsoft used Xbox Wire to call it "the most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store."
Sony says the demand is why pre-loading opened nine days early
The PlayStation Blog post comes from Tim Turi, Content Communications Manager at Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it frames the early pre-load as a direct response to the record:
"Given this unprecedented demand, we've joined with Rockstar Games to allow players to start pre-loading the game nine days early, so they're ready to play on launch day."
Sony also says it "strongly advise[s]" anyone hoping to play on November 19 to pre-load "as soon as possible." Rockstar Intel reads that as a hedge against PSN strain on launch day. If you're still clearing space, our GTA 6 file size breakdown lists what each console needs.
Microsoft's post is shorter on the record itself and longer on the cloud. Xbox One owners can stream GTA 6 through Xbox Cloud Gaming, and from November 11 players in supported markets can buy cloud playtime without a Game Pass subscription. The game itself must be purchased separately.
Take-Two expects to roughly double its quarter but keeps the unit count private
Neither platform holder shared actual numbers, and neither did Take-Two. On its November 9 earnings report, CEO Strauss Zelnick only said:
"The launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 is ten days away and, with pre-orders continuing to reach unprecedented levels, we expect to deliver an historic year for our company."
The forecast gives that word some weight. As PC Gamer notes, Take-Two projects $3.35-3.5 billion in net bookings for the current fiscal quarter, roughly double the $1.76 billion from the same quarter a year earlier.
The one platform where GTA 6 isn't topping any chart is PC, as PC Gamer points out with some sarcasm. There's no PC version, and Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Bell confirmed in October that the game won't be streamable on PC through the cloud either.
Source: PlayStation Blog, Xbox Wire, PC Gamer, Rockstar Intel
