Why Take-Two Is Hesitant To Reveal GTA 6 Pre-Order Numbers, Reveals Take-Two CEO

Despite record-level attention on GTA 6, Zelnick is refusing to disclose actual preorder figures. He called the early figures “unprecedented” and “astonishing.”

Why Take-Two Won’t Share Preorder Numbers

According to Bloomberg, Strauss said he didn’t want to mislead investors by sharing early raw numbers before they had the complete sales picture. The pre-order demand could simply reflect their early sales projections rather than massive outperformance.

“We can’t tell whether they mean anything,” Zelnick said. “The massive demand for pre-orders we’ve seen to date could reflect a pull forward of sales that otherwise would materialize in the fullness of time.”

“Given that, we think the raw numbers could potentially be misleading in a direction we wouldn’t feel good about,” he added.

“I’ve reminded people that we simply don’t know the demand curve because it’s just never happened before.”

Zelnick Not Concerned About Shortages Or Price Hikes

GTA 6 will launch exclusively on PlayStation and Xbox consoles on day one, a detail that carries some risk given current market conditions. Both console makers have raised hardware prices this year, and an ongoing chip shortage driven by data center demand has raised concerns about supply heading into the holiday season.

Zelnick said he isn’t thrilled about the price increases but isn’t worried about shortages affecting the launch.

“We believe the install base around launch time will reflect our original expectations,” he said. “The only thing that will cause me to be concerned, not worried, but concerned, would be if we somehow felt that number was going to be smaller than we thought. But that isn’t the case.”

He added that he would “nonetheless be happier if the price point weren’t going up, for obvious reasons,” and said he’s “frankly a little skeptical” that a supply shortage will end up being a real issue.

Zelnick applied the same guarded approach when asked about Take-Two’s arrangement with Netflix for the game’s August 27 extended look. He wouldn’t detail how the deal came together, saying only that “they’re great partners” and that the two companies have multiple ongoing collaborations, pointing to titles like Red Dead Redemption already available on Netflix’s game service.

Take-Two Quarterly Report For FY27 Hints At A Huge Year

That caution shows up in the numbers too. Take-Two’s net bookings came in at $1.39 billion for the quarter, down 3% year-over-year, while GAAP revenue rose 2% to $1.53 billion. None of that figure is broken out specifically for GTA 6 preorders, but Strauss did call its numbers “unprecedented and astonishing.”

For comparison, GTA 5 has sold more than 230 million copies since 2013, making it the second best-selling game of all time – the bar GTA 6 will eventually be measured against.

The Netflix showcase remains the immediate milestone ahead of GTA 6’s November 19 launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.