Pre-orders for Rockstar Games' upcoming open-world action-adventure title, GTA 6, have "significantly" surpassed the internal forecasts of its parent company, Take-Two Interactive.
In a recent interview with investigative journalist Jason Schreier, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked about GTA 6's pre-order figures. He declined to disclose specific numbers but described them as "extraordinary," stating that pre-orders far exceeded internal forecasts and surpassed expectations by a "significant" margin. The company opened pre-orders for GTA 6 on June 25, 2026, giving it more than a month of data to assess market demand before the game's official release on November 19, 2026.
As for why specific figures couldn't be disclosed, Zelnick explained that Take-Two Interactive is currently unable to accurately determine what this anomalous pre-order demand means for GTA 6's final sales. "We can't tell if these numbers really indicate anything," he stated, adding that this demand might simply represent sales pulled forward from post-launch purchases rather than meaning the game's final sales will exceed previous expectations. He clarified that the company has never experienced such a demand curve. "I remind everyone that we simply don't know what the demand curve will look like because this has never happened before," he said. He also cautioned that releasing pre-order data could create misleading expectations among investors.
A massive pre-order volume doesn't necessarily mean GTA 6 will sell an equally staggering number of additional copies at launch. As Schreier explained, consumers who would have bought the game on release day may have simply placed their orders early due to high anticipation. That said, the unprecedented enthusiasm surrounding GTA 6's pre-orders does suggest it could become one of the biggest entertainment product launches in history. The trailer for the new entry in the GTA series has already broken YouTube viewing records, while its predecessor, GTA V, has sold over 230 million copies cumulatively.