GTA VI Set to Smash Records in 2025: Biggest Launch in History!

Let’s take a quick trip back in time. In early December 2023, Rockstar Studios released the first trailer for the newest installment of its billion-dollar franchise, GTA; the sixth in the series. Fans had been waiting for this moment for ten years. Featuring the first playable female character in the series, who is also Latino-American, the game is slated to launch this year, unless there are any delays.

The trailer exploded onto the scene, garnering 90.6 million views within the first 24 hours. While the record still belongs to a music video by K-Pop group BTS, which achieved 108 million views in the same timeframe, these numbers are still astronomical. To date, the trailer has racked up over 230 million views on Rockstar’s YouTube channel.

Here’s the trailer again, for your viewing pleasure.

With this new powerhouse moving forward, an article from the Financial Times (via Darkhorizons) quoting a financial analysis firm, estimates that the launch of GTA VI could be the biggest of 2025, across all cultural products.

In a highly competitive and complex video game market, GTA VI is expected to generate—hold onto your hats—a staggering $3.2 billion in its first year. Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Rockstar, is projected to earn $1 billion from pre-orders alone.

“This Will Be One of the Biggest Launches in the History of the Entertainment Industry”

$3.2 billion in its first year nearly doubles what GTA V achieved during the same period. “We believe this will be one of the biggest launches in the history of the entertainment industry; not just in gaming but across all media. The demand is greater than anything we’ve seen before,” stated the analysis firm, as quoted by the Financial Times.

These financial figures are even making major Hollywood studios envious. For comparison, the highest-grossing film, Avatar, earned $2.92 billion. The GTA franchise, one of the most profitable of all time, is no stranger to breaking records.

Upon its release in 2013, GTA V shattered the record for the fastest-selling cultural product in 24 hours, raking in over $815 million and selling more than 11 million copies on launch day. To date, it has sold 205 million copies. Ten years after its release, it was still the most profitable cultural product ever.