Take-Two Interactive just released its latest earnings report for the second quarter of fiscal 2018, the obvious highlight (for us at least) being yet another sales milestone smashed by Grand Theft Auto 5.

Over 85 million copies of GTA 5 have now been sold worldwide, meaning 5 million copies have been sold over the course of the last six months (the 80 million mark was hit in June). For a four-year-old game, those numbers are staggering and many high-profile new releases hope for numbers like that.
85 million, however, isn't just another milestone in a long list of milestones.
At this rate, 90 will be no problem, and we'd be very surprised if 100 million wasn't achieved before sales began to wane. 85 million is special because, for all intents and purposes, GTA 5 is now the best selling video game of all time, a step-up from its previous position of being the best selling non-bundled video game of all time.
This achievement was a long time coming and actually getting here stopped being a question of "if" and became a question of "when" some time ago considering the rate of the game's sales. GTA 5 broke convention in many ways, such as showing an increase in sales during the past two years as opposed to a decline which would be more normal considering usual trends.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of sales per platform however Take-Two hasn't shared anything of the like. We do know that PC sales account for only a relatively small percentage. 8.7 million copies of the game were sold via Steam, however even this isn't a proper metric as copies bought physically or through the Rockstar Warehouse are not accounted for. Nonetheless, the console releases seem to make up the bulk of the sales.
In the past, the topic of why GTA 5 is so successful was one we covered often. But recently it stopped being such a prominent conversation piece since most of our readers likely knew the story by heart — but for any newcomers, both to the site and to GTA 5, here's a short recap: The reasons for the game's continued success rely on a number of beneficial factors converging in Rockstar's favor.
First, the game was released during the turn of the console generation, but ever so slightly prior to it. The game was initially launched on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms. Versions for the current gen consoles weren't officially announced at the time, so everyone interested in the game bought it then.