Take-Two Interactive just had its earnings call on Monday, and it reported record-breaking numbers of almost a billion in net bookings.
Take-Two reportedly gained net bookings worth $996.2 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2021. This 136%(year-over-year) boost is said to be heavily influenced by Epic Games’ GTA 5 giveaway promotion last May.
Sales skyrocketed after the GTA 5 free giveaway
The free GTA 5 promotion for Epic Games Store’s Mega Sale was one for the books. This was one of the few scenes wherein a big AAA title was given away without strings attached.
This caused a massive wave of traffic both for Epic Games and Rockstar Games’ servers. And now, as it turns out, this led to a wave of profit for its publisher as well.
PC Gamer reports that the GTA 5 sales performed well, even after the Epic Games Store promotion.
“In the six weeks following the Epic Store promotion, Grand Theft Auto 5 sold more units in the same period than in any previous year,” the gaming publication quotes CEO Strauss Zelnick.
Take-Two announced Grand Theft Auto V sold nearly 135,000,000 game copies worldwide.
An additional (almost) 5,000,000 copies were sold during the last financial quarter (Q4 2020). pic.twitter.com/F6F3FOGsKT
— GTA News 🔴 RockstarINTEL.com (@GTAonlineNews) August 3, 2020
The Grand Theft Auto V title is now sitting at 135 million copies sold, which is 15 million more than last February 2020. This is reportedly the game’s best first quarter since its 2013 release, in terms of copies sold.
GTA Online boosted consumer spending
Following the wave of new users, thanks to the Epic Games Store promotion, Take-Two revealed that the game’s online mode of play, the GTA Online, help boosted the numbers for consumer spending in-game.
Gamespot reports that the publisher’s microtransaction business in-game, or known as “recurrent consumer spending,” increased up to 52% with GTA Online taking the lead, alongside NBA 2K20, Red Dead Online, and Borderlands 3.
Take Two sales update
Grand Theft Auto V – 135 million units
Red Dead Redemption 2 – 32 million units
NBA 2K20 – 14 million units
Borderlands 3 – 10.5 million units
The Outer Worlds – 2.8 million units pic.twitter.com/FQOwgv8kcm
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 3, 2020
The media outlet reports a total earning of $482,153,999 for recurrent consumer spending alone. GTA Online alone had a record-breaking result of a 155% year-over-year jump.
Meanwhile, GTA 5 and the game’s online version are expected to boost the company’s sales even further as both are penned for a graphic-revamp for the PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X expansion come 2021.
GTA Online is also set for a standalone version exclusive for PlayStation 5 in the first three months of release. This great success for GTA 5 and Online may fear long-time players of the sixth installment ever seeing the light of day in the near future.
Featured image courtesy of Rockstar Games