How Many GTA 6 Pre-Orders Are There? 6.45 Million Digital Copies and $630 Million, According to Sensor Tower

GTA 6 is a month from launch, and millions of people have already paid for it. Market-research firm Sensor Tower now estimates the game has passed 6.45 million digital pre-orders worldwide, worth about $630 million, as of October 18. That is up from about 6.08 million copies and $594 million just five days earlier.

Neither Rockstar nor Take-Two has published a pre-order number, so these are the best figures anyone has. Here is what Sensor Tower's tracker shows, how fast it is growing, and how much weight to give it.

The latest numbers

Sensor Tower runs a public GTA VI sales tracker, built from its Video Game Insights data and updated weekly. Its October 18 snapshot, reported by GamesIndustry.biz and Insider Gaming, breaks down like this:

That is roughly a 74% to 26% split in PlayStation's favour, almost exactly the ratio from Sensor Tower's October 13 snapshot, reported by Wccftech: 4.51 million on PlayStation and 1.57 million on Xbox, for about 6.08 million copies and $594 million net of returns.

How fast it is growing

The trend is what stands out. In its first public update, covering pre-orders through July 20, Sensor Tower put the game at about 3.15 million copies on PlayStation and 0.93 million on Xbox, a little over 4 million in total, with about $395 million in net revenue by the time of its August post. By mid-October it had passed 6 million, and it added roughly 370,000 more in the five days between the October 13 and October 18 snapshots.

Sensor Tower's own analyst expects the biggest wave to come later. Back in August, Karl Kontus, who runs its Video Game Insights team, said most pre-orders would arrive in the last week or so before launch, once the marketing campaign was in full swing. That campaign is now everywhere, from the launch trailer to real GTA 6 cars on Miami's streets, and preloading opens on November 12, which could bring another rush.

Most buyers still seem to be picking the $100 edition

Divide $630 million by 6.45 million copies and you get an average of about $98 per pre-order. GTA 6 costs $79.99 for the Standard Edition and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition, so that average only works if most buyers are still paying for the Ultimate Edition. Regional pricing makes this rough math rather than a measurement, but it matches what Sensor Tower found in August, when it put the Ultimate Edition's share at about 89%, as we covered in our Ultimate Edition report.

Kontus expected that share to slide toward 50/50 as more casual players bought in closer to launch. If the average price is any guide, it hasn't slid much yet.

How it compares

Sensor Tower's historical comparison, covering US digital pre-orders, has GTA 6 running 148% ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II from 2022, the best performer among the games it tracks at the same point before launch, according to Wccftech. Everything else on the chart trails both, including Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, Diablo IV, Starfield and Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Sensor Tower's separate line for GTA 6's $100 edition alone also sits above every other game on the chart.

There is a GTA comparison too. In its August post, Sensor Tower put GTA 5's 2013 pre-orders at 7 million and Cyberpunk 2077's at 8 million. GTA 6 is closing in on both with digital copies alone, a month before launch.

For a sense of where launch could go, analysts have published much bigger forecasts. Newzoo has projected $3.25 billion to $5.2 billion in first-week sales, and Bloomberg reported analyst expectations of about 40 million copies on PlayStation and Xbox in the first four months, as covered in our Bloomberg breakdown.

Why these are estimates, not facts

Three caveats matter here.

First, these are third-party estimates. Sensor Tower models sales from its own data sources. It does not receive Rockstar's or Sony's sales figures, and its numbers can be revised.

Second, they only count digital pre-orders. Physical boxes, which in GTA 6's case contain a download code rather than a disc, aren't in the totals, so the real number of people who have pre-ordered is higher.

Third, revenue here means what buyers paid, not what Take-Two earns. Platform holders take a cut of every digital sale, so the publisher's share is smaller.

An official number could come soon. Take-Two reports its second-quarter results after the market closes on November 9, its last earnings call before launch. It hasn't given a pre-order figure on earlier calls, but CEO Strauss Zelnick has called pre-orders "unprecedented and astonishing."

FAQ

How many pre-orders does GTA 6 have?

About 6.45 million digital pre-orders worldwide as of October 18, according to Sensor Tower's estimate. Rockstar and Take-Two have not released an official figure.

How much money has GTA 6 made from pre-orders?

About $630 million in digital pre-orders, according to Sensor Tower, before platform fees and excluding physical copies.

Are more people pre-ordering GTA 6 on PS5 or Xbox?

PS5, by about three to one. Sensor Tower estimates 4.80 million pre-orders on PlayStation and 1.66 million on Xbox.

Is GTA 6 the most pre-ordered game ever?

Rockstar hasn't said, and no one has complete figures for every game. Among the games Sensor Tower tracks, GTA 6's US digital pre-orders are 148% ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II at the same point.

Sources

• Sensor Tower - GTA VI Sales Tracker
• Sensor Tower - The Art of the Steal: GTA VI is Coming
• Insider Gaming - GTA 6 Has Already Made Over $600 Million in Pre-Order Sales
• Wccftech - GTA 6 Digital Preorders Already Topped 6 Million and $594 Million
• Fortune - GTA 6 is taking over Miami, and dividing the county