GTA 6 Is the Most Pre-Ordered Game in PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store History

GTA 6 is the most pre-ordered game in the history of both console stores, Sony and Microsoft each said on November 10. Sony put it in its PlayStation Blog post opening pre-loads: "Grand Theft Auto VI is now the most pre-ordered game in the history of PlayStation Store."

Microsoft's line came the same day, in the Xbox Wire post announcing cloud streaming: "Grand Theft Auto VI, the most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store, launches November 19." Neither company published a number, and neither said what the previous record was.

What the numbers look like from outside

The only public figures are estimates. Sensor Tower's tracker put GTA 6 at about 9.69 million digital pre-orders worth $942 million as of November 10, with PlayStation 5 at 7.23 million copies and Xbox Series X and S at 2.46 million, as reported by Beebom. A week earlier the same tracker was at 7.71 million copies and $750 million.

For scale, the figure usually cited as the previous record is Cyberpunk 2077, which CD Projekt Red said had passed 8 million pre-orders in December 2020. Those counted PC and the last generation of consoles as well. GTA 6 is only on two platforms, and has no disc version: boxed copies carry a download code.

Take-Two is still not giving a figure

Take-Two reported its results on November 9 and held its full-year guidance at $8 billion to $8.2 billion, under the $8.64 billion GTA BOOM puts at analyst consensus, despite the pre-orders. Chief executive Strauss Zelnick said they are "far exceeding our original expectations" in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, and explained the decision not to revise anything so close to release: "We chose not to change our guidance because we're just ten days away from release. We're going to know a whole lot more after that occurs."

Microsoft's pre-order line arrived alongside a second piece of news. Asha Sharma, Xbox's chief executive, wrote on X that the cloud release is "the first step in our new 10-year strategic partnership with Take-Two", in a post quoted by Insider Gaming and other outlets. Microsoft says GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming in the months after. Neither company has said what else the agreement covers.

Both stores are now pushing people to download early. Sony tells anyone hoping to play on launch day to pre-load as soon as possible, and Microsoft says the same. GTA 6 needs up to 212GB and unlocks at midnight local time on November 19.