GTA 6 has to follow one of the best selling video games of all time

Amidst a post-pandemic hangover for the wider industry, video game makers are taking a leaf out of Hollywood’s playbook, hoping that sequels and reboots can propel the industry back to growth.

Strategy heavy “Civilisation 7” is out officially tomorrow, Medieval favorite “Kingdom Come: Deliverance II” hit the (mostly digital) shelves a week ago, and the OG “The Sims” will be re-released in celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary.

But none of those high-profile games carry the weight of expectation that “Grand Theft Auto 6” will shoulder when it debuts this fall — even just the confirmation that the game will come out this year was enough for the share price of owner Take-Two Interactive to soar last week.

Predicted to sell $3.2 billion in sales in its first 12 months, the latest of the GTA series will easily be the biggest debut of the year, following on from its predecessor, which sold 210 million copies, ranking as the third most sold video game of all time according to data compiled by Gamespot. 

Given how much the industry has moved on since GTA 5, breaking into this top ten and unseating classics like the “Super Mario” series from Nintendo, games that were often bundled with the company’s popular hardware products, will be a monumental task. Indeed, as the supply of video games has exploded, even megahits like Microsoft’s open-world game “Minecraft” have topped out at roughly 300 million sales, which is why iconic block-sorting game Tetris is likely to top this list for decades.

Consoling

Gaming companies have been reporting lackluster earnings in February; a disappointing outlook from Roblox pushed its shares down on Thursday, Electronic Arts’ “EA Sports FC 25” is underwhelming gamers, and Nintendo’s Switch sales are slipping too.