GTA’s remaster trilogy has ‘significantly exceeded expectations’ with up to 10m sales
Plus GTA V has now sold-in over 160 million copies, publisher Take-Two reveals
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition could have sold as many as 10 million copies since its release last November, sales figures shared on Monday suggest.
In an investor presentation released on Monday, Rockstar owner Take-Two published updated lifetime shipment figures for Grand Theft Auto V and the wider franchise.
According to the latest figures, the GTA series has now sold-in over 370 million units, including over 160 million copies of GTA V.
The figures are up from 355 million for the series (+15m) and 155 million for GTA V (+5m), which Take-Two reported last November, just prior to the release of the GTA trilogy remaster collection.
That means the GTA series has sold an additional 10m non-GTA V titles since Take-Two last provided sales figures.
Previously, increases for GTA series sales shared in Take-Two’s previous three quarters have tallied exactly with increases in GTA V sales.
So while sales of older GTA games can’t be discounted, it’s likely that GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition accounted for the vast majority of the 10 million non-GTA V series sales during Take Two’s most recent quarter, despite a poor reception from fans and critics.
Take-Two hasn’t officially confirmed exact sales figures for GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition, but CEO Strauss Zelnick claimed last month that the collection had performed “great” since its release.
And during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Monday, Zelnick said the title had “significantly exceeded” the company’s commercial expectations.
The console and PC remasters were heavily criticised upon release for a significant number of technical issues, as well as “unintended” documents found within game files such as unlicensed music and developer notes, resulting in the PC version being pulled temporarily.
Commenting on the current state of the remasters, Take-Two’s Zelnick told GI.biz on Monday that further improvements were coming.
“We have some quality issues. We’ve attempted to address those. We have more coming, and we feel very good about how the title has performed commercially. I think we were all a bit disappointed about the quality initially. We’re very grateful that most of those issues have been addressed. There’s more work to be done.”
GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition will be released for iOS and Android devices in the first half of calendar 2022.
Developer Rockstar confirmed last week that Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently in development.
“With every new project we embark on, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we have previously delivered – and we are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway,” it said.
Rockstar is also gearing up to release the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Grand Theft Auto V on March 15.