Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look did exactly what Rockstar Games needed it to beyond generate hype and excitement. New estimates from analytics firm Sensor Tower show Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders spiking more than 570% over the two days around the Netflix reveal, and the PlayStation lead we flagged when Xbox crossed a million only got wider.
On the day of the reveal, August 27, estimated pre-orders rose about 436% over the day before, sitting roughly 572% above the average day from the previous month through August 28.
PlayStation did most of the running, up around 606% on August 27, while Xbox managed a comparatively sleepy 127% surge, which tracks with what we've noted all along. The footage was captured on a base PS5, the pre-order push has leaned Sony since day one, so it's only natural that the majority of GTA 6's audience is buying where the marketing keeps pointing them. The reveal was never going to close the gap between the two consoles, but the closer we get to the game's actual release, the more it becomes obvious that Xbox has it work cut out for itself if it wants to stay competitive against its main rival.
Sensor Tower already had GTA 6 near 4.6 million pre-orders before the show even aired, about 77% of them on PlayStation, with close to 90% of buyers picking the $100 Ultimate Edition. The last number is the one Rockstar cares about the most. The pricing gamble everyone groaned about is, so far, printing money.
None of these are official numbers. Sensor Tower builds them from its own panel and modeling. However, the firm's estimates have been solid enough to take seriously. Take-Two Interactive still has not put out a real unit count, with CEO Strauss Zelnick refusing to call it more than just "unprecedented" and leaving it there.
With that said, it's become impossible to argue against what Rockstar is doing now. It went quiet for years, dropped a 26-minute show, and moved the needle 400 to 600% in 48 hours. If that is what one carefully rationed reveal pulls off, the pre-order records Take-Two keeps breaking are nowhere near done falling, especially since this is just the appetiser that could potentially include, in the future, a much wider marketing rollout across Miami.
