Industry analyst Doug Creutz says Grand Theft Auto 5 has made money than any other form of media in history, with over 90 million units sold and $6 billion in revenue.
Creutz, managing director and senior research analyst covering the media and entertainment sector at Cowen, told MarketWatch that the game has made more than blockbuster movies like Star Wars, and Gone With The Wind, which both brought in around $3 billion in theaters when adjusted for inflation. Creutz estimates that even with home entertainment sales, which he puts in the ballpark of $1 billion, the films don’t come close to Rockstar’s 2013 title.
“I think it’s a wild outlier,” said Creutz, adding, “That’s not to say Rockstar won’t have other big hits—it may—but another GTA 5isn’t likely. Michael Jackson had a lot of hit albums but he only had one Thriller.”
At the end of last year, GTA 5 had sold 85 million copies and continues to appear on NPD’s monthly list of best-selling games in the US. The title has remained in the top 10 in the UK charts for months, often still breaking the top 5 years after release.
According to Take Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, GTA 5 was on 42 out of 50 NPD monthly Top 10 charts last year, the most appearances of any single game on the NPD’s rankings.
A few months ago, Rockstar talked about its decision not to release any single-player DLC for the game, saying it didn’t think it was “possible or necessary.”
Take Two has also stated that it will include microtransactions in all of its games going forward, which means we’ll almost certainly see them in Red Dead Redemption 2 when it launches on October 26.
