Grand Theft Auto V, despite being less than three years old, has now shipped 65 million units worldwide, Take-Two has announced in their most recent earnings call. Citing the huge popularity of the game’s online counterpart, Grand Theft Auto Online as one of the major contributing factors for the continued sales, Take-Two CEO and chairman Strauss Zelnick said:
Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online have exceeded our expectations in every quarter since they release and continue meaningfully to expand their audience more than two and half years after their initial launch. Grand Theft Auto V is sold in more than 65 million units worldwide. Moreover, engagement with Grand Theft Auto Online continues to be fantastic, with both fourth quarter and fiscal 2016 revenues up year-over-year.
Rockstar Games has driven sustained engagement, with the Grand Theft Auto Online by delighting audiences with the regular release of free content updates. And there are many more on the way to keep these communities driving.
To put that figure into perspective, 65 million puts Grand Theft Auto V at fourth in the list of the best-selling games of all time, behind only Minecraft, Wii Sports and Tetris, all of which have been on sale for longer than Rockstar’s epic. It’s worthwhile to note that the title was re-released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 a year later than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, leading to additional sales, but that doesn’t make the number any less impressive.