Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive reveals that giving awayGrand Theft Auto 5for free helped the game to sell more paid copies. The deal, which could be redeemed on the Epic Games Store, was so popular that itcrashed the store andFortnite’s log-in servers.
Speaking during Take-Two’s earnings call for Q1 of the 2021 financial year, CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that the freeGTA 5Epic Games Store deal “did not come at the expense of paid sales of the title.” The game sold better during the first quarter of a financial year than it had since the game first launched in 2013. In the six weeks after the deal had ended, the game “sold more units than in the same period in any previous year.”
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This huge sales growth bringsGTA 5’s total sales since launch to 135 million. This is also a huge increase from May 2020, when Take-Two confirmed thatGTA 5’s sales had reached 130 million copies. In 2018, it was confirmed thatGTA Vis the most successful entertainment product in history, having made $6 billion, and these new sales will have only helped the game to increase its lead.
The real money-maker in all this may not be sales ofGTA 5, though. Zelnick also said that “recurrent consumer spending,” or microtransactions, inGTA Onlineoutperformed the company’s forecast by 155% to set a new record. Take-Two points to theGTA OnlineGerald’s Last Play updateas one big reason, as it’s possible that excitement surrounding the new Contact Missions helped draw in new players and make older players spend on the game.
However, Zelnick also said that this is part of a larger trend aboutGTA Online’s growth. While theGTA OnlineDiamond Casino & Resort updatewas banned in some countries and was criticized as gambling by some, it did help the game to set monthly average user records.
Today, it was also confirmed thatGTA Onlinewill have some exclusive content on PS5 and Xbox Series X. It’s not known if this will be to the extent of PS4 and Xbox One, which made the PS3 and Xbox 360 version obsolete, but this could also give gamers a huge reason to buy the game or spend on it.
GTA Onlineis available now on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, and will release on PS5 and Xbox Series X in 2021.
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