Newzoo: GTA 6 pre-orders generate $260m globally during first week of campaign

Grand Theft Auto 6 generated roughly $260 million in digital pre-orders during the last week of June, with Newzoo data indicating that $180 million was brought in across the US and five European markets (UK, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy).

Pre-orders for GTA 6 began on June 24, with the game set to launch at $79.99 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S as a digital-only release.

Newzoo forecasts that sales of Rockstar's highly anticipated title could reach $3.3 billion to $5.2 billion by the end of its launch week in November.

The data firm suggests GTA 6 will follow a typical sequel pre-order curve, with pre-orders representing 5.8% of cumulative total sales.

Newzoo predicts GTA 6 is on track to reach $4.5 billion in sales by launch week, selling approximately 51 million units at its average price.

"Contrary to social media reports, GTA 6 has not done a billion dollars in pre-orders 21 weeks out," said Newzoo management consultant Ronan Patrick. "This is absurd. Given how pre-order curves look, nothing ever has and nothing ever will in the near future.

"What the data actually shows is $180 million in digital pre-order spend across the US and the five largest European markets in the final week of June, translating to a global opening week of roughly $260 million, with most of the ramp still ahead."

Patrick concluded: "Even at the most conservative reading, namely that GTA 6 front-loads harder than any major title in our dataset, it lands a tremendous number by any historical standard."