The anticipated launch of GTA 6 may potentially see developer Rockstar surpass the already record-breaking sales of GTA 5, which generated over $3 billion in revenue in its first year and around $1 billion from pre-orders alone. Analysts from DFC Intelligence forecast that the demand for the game is nearly unmatched.
In a conversation with the Financial Times (as VGC previously noted), DFC analysts believe that GTA 6, the eagerly awaited follow-up to the best-selling console and PC game of all time, will ultimately become the premier entertainment launch of the year, and indeed, in history. The firm expects more than $3.2 billion in revenue within the game’s inaugural year, which is double what GTA 5 achieved during the same timeframe. (Including GTA Online, GTA 5 has reportedly amassed over $8 billion overall).
Yoshio Osaki from IDG Consulting shared this optimistic view. “We anticipate it will be one of the largest entertainment launches in history, not just within gaming but across all forms of media,” he remarked to the Financial Times. “The pent-up demand is unprecedented.”
The remarkable influence GTA 6 has over the gaming sector in 2025 and its financial prospects have been extensively analyzed by experts. Circana’s Mat Piscatella, who previously suggested that GTA 6 could be the ultimate game release ever, mentioned to GamesRadar+ that the anticipated combination of GTA 6 and the yet-to-be-announced Nintendo Switch 2 is quite unprecedented.
“I can’t recall a year like this in which so many significant developments were centered around merely two products entering the marketplace,” he reiterated. “It’s a lot riding on these two, so to speak. We’ll have to wait and see how it pans out. It’s indeed challenging until we receive confirmation on when these titles are released and start seeing how well 2025 performs from a gaming industry perspective.”
A phenomenon with this level of success and engagement can ripple through the gaming industry by invigorating the market and attracting investments, potentially nurturing growth opportunities at various stages of development.
Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two, has been cautious yet confident in his remarks regarding the game, recently emphasizing that GTA 6 will likely be “worth the wait” and teasing that players will experience something “they just haven’t encountered before.”