The analytics firm Sensor Tower has estimated that GTA VI pre‑orders amount to approximately four million copies, which is equivalent to revenue of $429 million. The figure looks impressive, especially given that Cyberpunk 2077 still holds the record for pre‑orders with eight million copies – but in that case, it was about a release on both PC and consoles. GTA VI will be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series on November 19.

At the same time, there is no way to confirm the figures that have been mentioned yet. The publisher, Take‑Two, has not published any official data on pre‑orders, and the way the analytics are presented – with an accuracy of up to a million – seems overly confident for an assessment based on indirect signals. It also deserves special attention that millions of players placed pre‑orders without ever seeing the game in action. All they had at their disposal were two trailers, a set of screenshots, a showcase announced for the 27th, and decades of accumulated trust in the studio, which has not yet released any outright failures.

The main tension surrounding pre‑orders is not related to the game mechanics, but to the form of sale. Only digital versions are available on consoles, which is why the slogan “no disc – no purchase” consistently appears under every news item, after which the same millions of copies go into pre‑order. Rockstar hasn’t shown any gameplay, hasn’t revealed the exact structure of the release, and hasn’t confirmed any figures, yet funds from pre‑orders have already been collected.