Weekly Sales Analysis, 21 September - GTA V Tops 17m Week One

"Overview

Overall hardware sales increased by 31 percent week-on-week, due to the release of Grand Theft Auto V for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Week-on-week sales is up for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and DS, and down for the Wii, PSP, 3DS, and Vita. Overall year-on-year sales are up 46 percent. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and 3DS are up year-over-year. The DS has the biggest drop year-on-year by percent, at 77 percent

Three games debuted in the top 30 this week, the same as last week. Grand Theft Auto V (X360) debuted at the top of the charts with sales of 8.88 million units. The PlayStation 3 version debuted at number two with sales of 8.64 million units. This is the biggest opening in gaming history. The game launched in North America and Europe.

Software milestones this week in the top 30: Monster Hunter 4 (3DS) passed the two million mark."

[mushroomwig]

17 million copies...Jesus Christ.

[shivvy24]

Thats about twice as much as cod bo2 sold in the first week

[Aleithian]

Yup - 11m. It took Black Ops II 15 days to hit 17m.

[MatriXcian]

I wonder if this is counting digital sales as well. I myself bought the game digitally on PSN.

[trunkswd]

Retail only.

[MatriXcian]

It also seems GTA drove up PS3 sales like crazy.

[trunkswd]

360 sales did a little better than doubling week-over-week, while the PS3 nearly tripled in sales.

[Feocart]

I'm not surprised at the difference between PS3s sold versus 360s sold, despite GTA V selling more on the 360. The GTA V bundle really bumped up sales of PS3s, but it's a huge win for both consoles.

I'm curious how many weeks GTA V will remain #1/#2 respectively in sales. This is crazy.

[nooneknows]

I'm surprised the PS3 and 360 version of GTA V are Neck and Neck. Usually Action/Shooters sell a lot more on 360, however, I think PS3 sales sky rocketed after that GTA V/PS3 bundle.

[Skips]

GTA V hasn't been released in Japan yet though.

Going by how things are doing with GTA V. I can definitely see it selling well over 1 million in Japan (probably 1.5 million) with a large majority in favor for the former...

And I haven't seen that bundle pop up anywhere on charts like Amazon. People who actually want GTA probably already have a PS3 by now. lol

Anyways,

"GTA V Tops 17m Week One"

0_0 Jeez, there'll be a crap ton of people playing online next week. XD

[Lonnie18]

I believe it will sale another 5 million in the next week, the online experience will be packed.

[shivvy24]

Yep I havent got mine yet

[Aleithian]

Yup. Lot's of people are waiting. Sales over Thanksgiving and Christmas will boost this way up. I wouldn't be surprised if it hits 25 million by January.

[MysticStrummer]

Great game, but is it that much better than some other games? I don't think so. Still, I'd rather GTA sell like this than CoD.

[kevnb]

its lightning in a bottle, an awesome game with mass appeal.

[MysticStrummer]

Can't argue with the mass appeal thing, obviously. I guess my definition of awesome differs from many others. GTA5 is probably the best of the GTAs, but RDR was more impressive to me personally. GTA5 is also the easiest of the GTAs, which is a negative in my book. Still a good game and I look forward to playing online.

Edit - Just got to the end of the story a couple of hours ago. GTA4's ending was so much better, and the story in general was kinda meh. I think that's partly because of the switching characters thing, which I liked a lot, but I think it hurt the story telling aspect.

[redknight80]

@Mystic, yeah the level of difficulty is a negative for me, as well. I am about half way through the main story missions and haven't died once while on missions. There is more to come for me so I will surely and hopefully face a challenge later. I still am having a blast with the game, just I thought the heists would be more of a challenge.

[CaulkSlap]

Even if you're not a big fan you should be glad that it's doing well. Most developers won't take 6 years to create an insanely massive game with far more detail and effort put in than would be necessary just to get big sales. GTA could have easily become an annual COD style franchise.

[LetoAtreides82]

Imagine how richer Rockstar would be if they had this game ready for the PS4 and Xbone launches.

[Aleithian]

Some GTA V sales facts from Wikipedia. This will blow your mind:

"The game was successful commercially; within 24 hours of release, Grand Theft Auto V generated more than $800 million in revenue, equating to nearly 13 million copies sold for Take Two, exceeding the previous first-day sales record of $500 million set by Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The numbers nearly doubled analysts' expectations for the title. Three days after the release, the game had surpassed $1 billion in sales, making it the fastest selling entertainment product in history. This broke the previous record set by Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which took 15 days to surpass $1 billion in sales."

Note that this says fastest selling ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCT in history.

It is already the biggest selling PS3 game in history, and is the second biggest after Black Ops on XBOX, which has 17m lifetime sales.