GTA V has sold 160 million units, second only to Minecraft

digitaltrends.com:

Grand Theft Auto V has sold 160 million units since its launch, cementing it as the second bestselling game of all time behind Minecraft, according to Take-Two Interactive’s latest investor presentation.

The figure for GTA V‘s sales is massive compared not only to other games by themselves, but entire franchises. According to Statista, by November 2020, the Assassin’s Creed franchise had sold 155 million copies. That number doesn’t include Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, which was released that same month, but even when you add the sales of that title in, GTA V‘s sales come extremely close to the total sales of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Take-Two Interactive’s presentation also claimed that the Grand Theft Auto franchise has, in total, sold over 370 million units. To put that in perspective, according to the Pokémon company’s website, the Pokémon franchise has sold a total of 380 million units.

GTAV‘s massive sales number isn’t surprising considering how successful the game’s multiplayer component, Grand Theft Auto Online, has been since it launched in 2013. Over the course of the past nine years, GTA Online‘s player base has ballooned, mainly thanks to constant support from Rockstar. According to Take-Two’s presentation, GTA Online has had over 40 free content updates to date.

However, GTA V‘s massive sales figure is sure to put some stress on Rockstar to ensure that the next entry in the franchise performs similarly. While fans have been looking forward to something like “GTA 6“ for years now, creating a game that will sell more than entire franchises, especially when its online component is set to become a stand-alone release, is a tall task.