Grand Theft Auto 6 had accumulated an estimated 7.71 million digital pre-order records roughly two weeks before launch, according to Sensor Tower. The analytics firm’s tracker puts estimated gross revenue from those orders at $751 million, figures that reflect modeled consumer activity and not publisher-confirmed pre-order or revenue figures from Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.
PS5 Holds a Commanding Lead
PlayStation 5 holds a substantial advantage in estimated pre-order share, though the data does not point to a single explanation.
PlayStation 5 accounts for 74% of estimated pre-orders, translating to approximately $559 million in modeled revenue, according to Sensor Tower. Xbox Series X|S represents the remaining 26%, or roughly $192 million. Factors such as installed base size, regional console ownership patterns, and platform-specific purchasing behavior are all plausible contributors to the gap, but the available data does not establish a single cause.
Most Buyers Are Paying Full Premium
Nearly nine in ten pre-order customers chose the higher-priced edition, though that group likely skews toward the franchise’s most committed fans.
Earlier Sensor Tower data shows 89% of GTA 6 pre-orders went to the $100 Ultimate Edition, with just 11% choosing the $80 Standard Edition. That split was broadly consistent across both platforms. Pre-order buyers typically represent a franchise’s most committed fans, so the edition mix may not reflect the broader audience that purchases after launch.
How It Compares to the Last Big Benchmark
GTA 6 is running well ahead of recent benchmarks, though the comparison carries important limits.
Sensor Tower says GTA 6 digital pre-orders ran 148% ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at the equivalent point before that game’s 2022 launch. That comparison covers U.S. digital pre-orders only and excludes boxed releases, so it does not measure total physical-and-digital demand for either video games.
Analyst Projections: Big Numbers, Wide Range
The most detailed public estimate comes from Sensor Tower’s Karl Kontus, who sees demand as unusually concentrated in the pre-launch window.
Karl Kontus, Sensor Tower’s senior vice president and general manager of Video Game Insights, has estimated that total pre-orders could reach approximately 25 million rather than the 40 million-plus a standard pre-order trajectory might suggest. Demand for GTA 6 appears unusually front-loaded, meaning a larger-than-normal share of buyers committed early, according to Kontus.
Kontus referenced Cyberpunk 2077, which reported eight million publisher-announced pre-orders by launch, as a point of comparison. His projection that 25 million GTA 6 pre-orders could represent roughly $2 billion in sales by launch is an analyst estimate, not a confirmed forecast. The Cyberpunk 2077 figure also uses publisher-disclosed pre-order data, not Sensor Tower’s modeled methodology, making a direct comparison imprecise.
