It's rare for any game to maintain strong sales a decade into its life, let alone record breaking sales over a decade into its life. Yet, 11 years after its initial release, here we stand celebrating Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto Online.
Released on October 1, 2013, two weeks after GTA 5 shipped on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, GTA Online survived a disastrous launch to help GTA 5 become the most profitable entertainment product of all time.
Although GTA Online's success has come at the expense of the potential earlier release of the sequel, and story DLC for the single-player mode — namely one that would've starred Trevor Philips in a more involved role, as confirmed by one of the game's developers and voice actor Steven Off earlier this year — its impact on the GTA community and the entire video game industry is undeniable.
GTA Online gives its players a massive world with endless possibilities, playing together with or against their friends. It was already fun causing chaos in Los Santos in 2013, but Rockstar has refined the gameplay, supporting GTA Online with updates and using it as a testing ground for future features for Grand Theft Auto 6. In doing so, Rockstar has given players more reasons to come back.
