Grand Theft Auto 5 sells, on average, 17.7 million copies every year. That is not its launch-year figure. That is its lifetime average — spread across 13 years, three console generations, and a game that first released when the Xbox 360 was still a going concern.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed the latest milestone on the company’s 7 August 2026 earnings call: Grand Theft Auto 5 has now sold over 230 million units worldwide. “The Grand Theft Auto series once again exceeded expectations,” Zelnick told investors. “Recurrent consumer spending for the series grew 3% and GTA Plus continues to thrive.”
230 Million and Still Selling
The 230 million figure was not a dramatic leap — GTA 5 had already reached 225 million by February 2026 — but the pace is the remarkable part. The game has sold roughly five million copies every quarter with near-clockwork consistency, occasionally dipping slightly below that figure but never collapsing. At its lifetime average of 1.5 million copies per month, Grand Theft Auto 5 would qualify as a successful double-A title on its own.
“GTA 5 has sold an average of 17.7 million copies per year — a number uncomfortably close to the 25 million lifetime sales achieved by the bottom entries on gaming’s all-time top 50 list.”
Take-Two confirmed the broader Grand Theft Auto franchise has now sold nearly 475 million units globally — up from approximately 470 million the previous quarter, with the series’ Red Dead Redemption titles approaching 116 million alongside.
How It Became Gaming’s Most Durable Blockbuster
Grand Theft Auto 5 launched on 17 September 2013 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It then re-released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2014, arrived on PC in 2015, and received a further re-release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2022 — each iteration finding a new audience. GTA Online, bundled with every copy, provided an ongoing revenue engine through in-game currency, cosmetics, and eventually GTA Plus, the subscription tier introduced in 2022.
The combination of a vast open world that people return to over years, a multiplayer mode that Rockstar has kept actively updated, and the title’s availability across virtually every platform has insulated it against the usual games-industry decay curve, where most titles sell the majority of their copies in the first 90 days.
How the Numbers Look Against Other Games
Only Minecraft sits above Grand Theft Auto 5 in all-time sales, with approximately 350 million copies sold. The gap between second and third place is notable: GTA 5 at 230 million versus Tetris (including its many versions) and then a drop-off to other well-known franchises.
By comparison, Baldur’s Gate 3 — broadly considered one of the best-reviewed games of the 2020s — has sold an estimated 20 million copies in its lifetime. Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold more than ten times that. Cyberpunk 2077, another monster hit, sits at around 40 million lifetime units. GTA 5’s annual average alone is close to half of that total.
The scale becomes stranger the longer you look at it. Most games release, sell their peak numbers, and are largely forgotten in commercial terms within two years. Grand Theft Auto 5 is in its 14th year on shelves and still outpacing the annual sales of many new releases.
What Happens When Grand Theft Auto 6 Arrives?
Take-Two has confirmed Grand Theft Auto 6 for November 2026, which means GTA 5 is about to enter the most peculiar phase of its commercial life: competing directly with its own sequel. The expectation from analysts is that GTA 6’s launch will not immediately kill GTA 5’s sales — GTA Online 2.0 has been heavily rumoured as a separate offering, and the older game’s install base means many players will hold on to it — but the quarterly cadence of five million units will almost certainly slow.
For now, GTA 5 remains the best-selling title of the past decade in both unit and dollar terms, according to Take-Two. It has sold more than 230 million copies. That number will keep moving before November arrives.