Grand Theft Auto V Smashes Retail Sales Records
Take-Two Interactive broke records Sept. 17 with the landmark debut of “Grand Theft Auto V.” Take-Two raked in more than $800 million on the first day of sales, not including pre-orders in parts of the world where the game will launch in the near future. To compare, the movie “The Avengers” only made $200 million in ticket sales on its first day, and the now second-best video game seller, “Call of Duty Black Ops 2,” only made $500 million on its launch day.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said of the record-setting success: “All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to ‘Grand Theft Auto V.’ Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry’s new standard for creativity, innovation, and excellence.”
“Grand Theft Auto V” is hitting high watermarks with critics as well, pulling out perfect scores with major publications both within the gaming world and in the general media. Besides massive sales, consumer feedback on social media outlets such as Reddit have been positive, and the user score on Metacritic is hovering just higher than 8 out of 10—a tall feat in a time when gamers have become increasingly difficult to please.
Can “Grand Theft Auto V” smash more records in the near future? “Call of Duty Black Ops 2” managed a cool $1 billion in just 15 days, and it looks like GTA V might be right on its heels in far less than half that time. Some are even predicting that at its current rate the game could easily become the highest-selling entertainment product of all time, and that might not be hyperbole in the coming weeks.
