Rockstar's GTA 6 is expected to be a giant success commercially, but just how big does the game need to be to actually be successful following a decade of development and perhaps one of the biggest development budgets ever? We don't know, because Take-Two doesn't disclose that kind of information, but EA founder Bing Gordon has his own thoughts.
On the Sozzi Unleashed show, Gordon said it would be "mind-blowing" if GTA 6 can reach 75 million copies sold. How did he arrive at that number? Gordon said he was basing this on a number--750 million--a figure he thought a previous GTA 6 trailer reached. If GTA 6 can sell 10% of that, or 75 million copies, that would be a success, he said.
Gordon was referencing "the preview video," which might have been the GTA 6 Extended Look, which premiered on Netflix and then landed on YouTube. No single video for GTA 6 has 750 million views, but it's not a stretch to think GTA 6 videos distributed everywhere on the internet have reached that number collectively.
Also in the interview, Gordon said another sign of success for GTA 6 is if people play the game instead of watching football on Thanksgiving, which is just a few days after GTA 6 releases.
"I think from my point of view, what success for GTA 6 is going to be on Thanksgiving Day after eating your turkey, you don't watch football, you play GTA," he said.
Of course, it's not a one or the other situation; people will no doubt play GTA 6 and watch football.
Gordon also went on to point out how, in the movie business, a film reaching $300 million is great and $1 billion is obscenely great. Video games can reach those numbers, too, but the film and video game businesses are not directly comparable for many reasons.
GTA 6 is tracking to be a huge hit. Sensor Tower's data claims the game has sold about 7 million copies thus far, generating close to $700 million in revenue. The same company is projecting 25 million preorders by launch, which would work out to about $2 billion in revenue by launch.
The latest data from Circana shows that nearly 1 in 3 console and PC gamers in the US plan to buy GTA 6, and that's the highest purchase intent ever recorded.
