Grand Theft Auto VI First Week Preorders Have Reportedly Generated $260 Million In Global Digital Spending

Analytics firm Newzoo has stated that Rockstar Games’ upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI‘s preorder campaign is currently is tracking as the strongest on record so far, and is looking to sell in the region of 37-51 million copies worldwide in its first week alone.

The company stated that about $180 million has been spent on digital preorders for Grand Theft Auto VI in the US and the five largest markets in Europe during the last week of June 2026. It further added that, based on player distribution of Grand Theft Auto V as a guide, total global spending was about $260 million during the first week that preorders went live.

“That kicks off the strongest preorder campaign ever recored,” said Newzoo. It also predicted first week sales for Rockstar Games’ upcoming crime romp using the same data, noting that hit titles typically follow three sales curves — the brand new IP, the “sequel with performance uncertainty,” and the “proven sequel.” It believes that GTA VI will follow the model of the proven sequence — where more preorders are booked early — and estimates that first-week preorders sales will make up 5.8% of total sales by the end of GTA VI’s first week.

Contrary to social media reports, GTA 6 has not done a billion dollars in pre-orders 21 weeks out. This is absurd. Given how pre-order curves look, nothing ever has and nothing ever will in the near future. What the data actually shows is $180 million in digital pre-order spend across the US and the five largest European markets in the final week of June, translating to a global opening week of roughly $260 million, with most of the ramp still ahead.

Run that figure through the plausible band of preorder curves, and GTA VI is on track to book between $3.25 billion and $5.2 billion in week-one launch revenue. Even at the most conservative reading, namely that GTA 6 front-loads harder than any major title in our dataset, it lands at a tremendous number by any historical standard.

Grand Theft Auto VI is slated for release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19, 2026. Rockstar stirred up a lot of controversy recently after confirming that the game will only be available digitally at launch; even the boxed copy of GTA VI will feature a download code, not an actual disc. Worryingly, it has been claimed that a disc version of the game is not planned even ‘months after launch.’

[Source – Newzoo via VGC]