If the Epic Games Store exploding last week was any indication, people really love them some Grand Theft Auto V. How much exactly? Try to the tune of 130,000,000 copies sold (not including the free copies redeemed from Epic).
In their recent financial report posted today, Take-Two Interactive shared they didn’t just perform well financially this last fiscal year, they killed it. Their revenue from their fourth quarter alone increased 41%, from an already eye-watering $539 million last year to a gobsmacking $760.5 million. Naturally, this wasn’t by virtue of new releases alone: add-ons, DLC, and micro-transactions pulled the lion’s share of the weight.
The full report breaks everything down to the most granular level, but needless to say Grand Theft Auto V continues to sell extremely well even seven years after launch. Part of that has to do with Grand Theft Auto Online, though I do wonder how many of us out there bought the game twice once it made the jump to next-gen and PC. Regardless, the game continues to print money for Take-Two, and the rest of their portfolio certainly adds to their stockpile.
Then again, Take-Two’s monetization is some of the most aggressive and annoying you’ll find in the industry (just take a peak at NBA 2K’s virtual currency; I’ll be waiting), so it’s little surprise their “live-service” investments have created a veritable mountain of cash. With profits like these don’t expect them to alter course any time soon. Nor do they need to rush out a Grand Theft Auto VI for that matter. That isn’t to say Rockstar isn’t working on it, but with sales like these, why hurry? So long as they keep to their anti-crunch promises I don’t mind the wait if it lands as well as both GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.
