Take-Two says GTA 6 presales are way ahead of what it planned for. CEO Strauss Zelnick told Variety the presales are "far in excess of our expectations," and the company's earnings release on November 9 says pre-orders are at "unprecedented levels." No official number though. Take-Two didn't give a unit count or a dollar figure.
So if you've seen 7.71 million or $750 million floating around, those aren't from Take-Two. The 7.71 million is a Sensor Tower estimate. The rest is guesswork for now.
The numbers Take-Two did give
This was the July to September quarter, so no GTA 6 money in it yet. It shows.
| Net bookings | About $1.60 billion, down 18% from $1.96 billion a year ago |
| GAAP net revenue | About $1.50 billion, down from $1.77 billion |
| Net loss | $54 million, or $0.29 a share |
| Recurrent spending | 81% of net bookings (in-game purchases, GTA Online and so on) |
| Next quarter (Oct to Dec) | Net bookings of $3.35 billion to $3.5 billion expected |
| Full year outlook | Net bookings of $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion, unchanged |
The weak spot was NBA 2K27, which came in under Take-Two's own forecast. The Grand Theft Auto series did better than planned. Bookings also landed just under the company's own $1.62 to $1.67 billion guidance. The stock still went up about 4% after hours, because everyone's really watching November 19.
Why didn't they raise the forecast?
Zelnick basically said it's too early. "We're days away from the launch of GTA VI, and we tend to avoid claiming success before it occurs," he said on the call. And: "There is really no need to update numbers right now." Take-Two says it will share more on how the game is doing after it's out. Next quarter is where the GTA 6 money shows up, and Take-Two expects revenue to more than double.
How GTA 6 got here
It's been a long road. Rockstar first aimed for fall 2025. In May 2025 it pushed the game to May 26, 2026. Then in November 2025, in Take-Two's earnings report, it moved again to November 19, 2026, the date that stuck. Rockstar said the extra months were to finish the game "with the level of polish you have come to expect." Zelnick has been saying he's confident in this date ever since, and so far he's been right.
The bar GTA 6 has to clear
For context, here's what Take-Two reported in its first-quarter report this year (the quarter that ended June 30):
- GTA V: over 230 million copies sold in, 13 years after it first came out.
- Red Dead Redemption 2: more than 87 million.
- The whole GTA series: almost 475 million units.
"Sold in" means copies shipped to stores and digital shops, not exactly copies bought by players, but it's the number Take-Two uses. GTA V is also why recurrent spending is 81% of bookings: GTA Online is still printing money. That's the main reason analysts expect GTA 6 to break launch records, and why Take-Two's own guidance for the next quarter is more than double this one.
Quick jargon note: net bookings is basically what players spent in the quarter, including digital stuff that gets counted as revenue later. Revenue follows accounting rules and spreads some of that out. That's why the two numbers in the table don't match. If you follow TTWO as a stock, that's the number to watch on the next report. This is news, not financial advice.
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What it means if you're playing
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Nothing changes. GTA 6 is still out November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Pre-load is already open, and the download is up to 212GB, so make sure you've got the room. A 2TB M.2 SSD is the easy fix on PS5. Still need the game? GTA 6 for PS5 is $79.99 for the Standard Edition. With presales this big, controllers could get hard to find around launch too, so grab a second controller early if you need one.
Everything else about the launch, from unlock times to file size, is in our GTA 6 hub.
FAQ
How many GTA 6 pre-orders are there?
Take-Two hasn't said. It only says presales are "far in excess" of its expectations and at "unprecedented levels." The 7.71 million figure going around is a Sensor Tower estimate, not an official number.
How much money did Take-Two make last quarter?
About $1.60 billion in net bookings and $1.50 billion in GAAP revenue, with a $54 million net loss.
Is GTA 6 still coming out November 19?
Yes, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Sources
- Insider Gaming: GTA 6 presales are far in excess of Take-Two expectations insider-gaming.com
- Take-Two Q2 FY2027 earnings release (SEC 8-K) sec.gov
- Stock Titan: Take-Two reports results for fiscal second quarter stocktitan.net
- MLQ: Take-Two's net bookings fall 18% ten days before GTA VI mlq.ai
- VGC: Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed again to the end of 2026 videogameschronicle.com
- PC Gamer: GTA 6 is delayed to November pcgamer.com
- Game Developer: GTA V surpasses 230 million sales months before GTA VI gamedeveloper.com
Written by the WIZY creator
A lifelong gamer and Warhammer painter, and the maker of the WIZY RPG game. I write about games, hardware, Warhammer and crypto in plain English, and I check every fact against its source.
