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Eye-watering GTA 6 revenue projection suggest another record-breaker for Rockstar

GTA VI is set to take place in Vice City that is much larger than the Los Santos setting of GTA V. (Image source: Rockstar)
GTA VI is set to take place in Vice City that is much larger than the Los Santos setting of GTA V. (Image source: Rockstar)
GTA 6 is one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time, as fans have been waiting for a new entry in the long-running Grand Theft Auto series for over a decade. This pent up demand could result in GTA VI brining in more than double the amount of cash of GTA V in its first year.

2025 is shaping up to be a big year for AAA games with titles like Death Stranding 2, Doom: The Dark Ages, Avowed, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, etc, set to grace the machines of gamers worldwide. However, none of the AAA titles releasing in 2025 is more anticipated than Grand Theft Auto VI.

After a decade under wraps, Rockstar finally showed GTA 6 in a debut trailer in December 2023. The trailer which has since amassed more than 230 million views is a testament to the appetite of gamers who have been starved for a new GTA game since the September 2013 release of GTA V. This appetite might result in GTA 6 leapfrogging GTA V in revenue, as an estimate from DFC Intelligence suggests a 2x increase in revenue for Rockstar’s upcoming title in its debut year.

GTA 6 is expected to vastly outperform GTA V

Per DFC Intelligence (via Financial Times), GTA VI is estimated to gross a whopping $3.2 billion in revenue within 12 months of its release. This $3.2 billion revenue includes a pre-order estimate of around $1 billion.

To put the proposed total GTA 6 revenue for the first 12 months into perspective, consider that Avatar (2009), the highest-grossing film of all time, has made $2.9 billion in its lifetime. GTA VI beating Avatar’s lifetime earnings within a year would be an incredible feat.

GTA VI could beat GTA V’s lifetime earnings 

If GTA 6 does rack in more than $3 billion in its first year, it would put GTA VI in a position to outperform GTA V over its lifetime, especially since Rockstar is rumored to bring the game to PCs a while later than consoles. This would effectively allow Rockstar to sell the game twice.

To date, GTA V has sold more than 200 million copies and has racked in more than $8.6 billion. GTA Online, the multiplayer component of GTA V, is responsible for a large portion of this $8.6 billion. For instance, GTA Online reportedly brought $500 million in revenue in 2022. So, once Rockstar releases the multiplayer component of GTA 6 after the release of the single player experience, we can expect it to give another big boost to the overall earnings of the title.

Put simply, GTA 6 is set to be a much bigger game than its predecessor in both scale and revenue. Now it remains to be seen whether Rockstar releases the title in 2025 or pushes the GTA 6 release date back. Many fans fear the latter as there hasn’t been any major updates regarding the game since the release of the first trailer in 2023.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 12 > Eye-watering GTA 6 revenue projection suggest another record-breaker for Rockstar
Fawad Murtaza, 2025-01- 1 (Update: 2025-01- 2)