Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V is so successful that its number of units shipped since it launched six weeks ago – 29 million – exceeds the population of the world’s 44th largest nation, Venezuela. Let that sink in for a second.
Good? Moving on.
Rockstar Games owner Take-Two Interactive confirmed the figure in its latest earnings report, which runs down what amounts to a record-setting second quarter for the company. The numbers are a bit tricky this time around due to the way earnings are reported, with two sets of figures – one accounting for GTA V‘s impact and the other not – showing two very different scenarios. There’s a detailed rundown on what all of this means at GI.biz (you should go check it out), but the short version is: GTA V is left out of one set of numbers because it released with “undelivered elements,” namely GTA Online, that didn’t arrive until the subsequent fiscal quarter.
Accounting for GTA V‘s sales form July 1 through the September 30 close of the quarter, Take-Two took in a record-setting $1.27 billion in revenues and a net income of $325.57 million. It’s not all Rockstar though. Borderlands 2, which released way back in September 2012, shipped 7.5 million copies and is expected to claim the title of all-time best-selling release from 2K Games. Continued sales from that, as well as BioShock Infinite, contributed as well. The huge quarter led Take-Two to update its financial outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, with a forecast that now tops out at $2.3 billion in net revenues.
What do you think it would be like if we took all 29 million people who own or will own those shipped copies and formed them into a nation of their own? What do you think it would lead to? Probably this.
