GTA 6 vs GTA 5 launch: the $800 million first day to beat

The launch GTA 6 has to beat happened in September 2013. Grand Theft Auto V came out on September 17, 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, sold more than $800 million at retail worldwide in a single day, and passed $1 billion in three, according to two Take-Two press releases dated September 18 and 20, 2013. GTA 6 arrives on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, 4,811 days later.

Date	Figure	Time since launch	Source
September 18, 2013	more than 8,300 North American stores open at midnight	launch night	Take-Two
September 18, 2013	more than $800 million in retail sales, excluding Japan and Brazil	1 day	Take-Two
September 20, 2013	more than $1 billion in retail sales	3 days	Take-Two
October 8, 2013	seven Guinness World Records	3 weeks	Game Informer
August 2026	more than 230 million units sold in	13 years	Take-Two

A dollar figure, and an estimate

Take-Two’s September 18 release called it “first day sell-through of more than $800 million worldwide, excluding the upcoming launch in Japan and Brazil, according to Company estimates.” It counted dollars, not copies. Any day-one unit number for GTA 5 comes from somewhere other than the publisher.

The same release called it the best first day in the history of both Take-Two and the series. CEO Strauss Zelnick said “the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves,” and pointed to more than 8,300 stores in North America opening at midnight.

Faster than The Avengers

Two days later, on September 20, 2013, Take-Two said GTA V had made “more than $1 billion during its first three days on sale,” adding: “We believe this marks the fastest that any entertainment property, including video games and feature films, has reached this significant milestone.” The previous game record belonged to Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which Engadget said took 15 days. For film, Take-Two’s footnote credited The Avengers.

Guinness World Records made it official on October 8, 2013, Game Informer reported, with six more records alongside it, including best-selling video game in 24 hours and highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours. Editor-in-chief Craig Glenday put it this way: “Gaming is no longer a niche hobby, as GTA 5 has proved, and how exciting that it’s taken on the might of Hollywood and won!”

Why the comparison will be uneven

The 2013 numbers covered retail sales on two consoles, with Japan and Brazil left out. GTA V then kept selling across three console generations and PC, reaching more than 230 million units in Take-Two’s August 2026 investor presentation.

Analyst forecasts for GTA 6 all start from that 2013 launch, and they are collected, with names attached, in how many copies GTA 6 could sell. Sales for every entry since 1997 sit in the GTA series history.