A few days back, Take-Two Interactive revealed the results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2025. The most important point to come out was the incredible achievements of two highly popular franchises, with GTA selling more than 430 million units, putting it fourth on the all-time list, while the Red Dead Redemption franchise has seen around 91 million units sold.
The parent company of Rockstar Games also disclosed that Grand Theft Auto V broke the 200 million copies sold barrier and Red Dead Redemption 2 crossed the 65 million copies sold mark, both significant achievements. These two of the publishers' most iconic titles, with the former still ranking among the most watched and popular video games on live streaming services.
Alongside highlighting improvements in overall growth, Take-Two Interactive's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, clarified its stance on a matter that had been on the public's lips for some time. He said the video game holding company firm would 'not alter its policy on releasing big-budget games on subscription-based platforms on day one, adding that its 'decisions are rational.'
The American company's total net bookings during the first fiscal quarter of 2025 increased by 1% to $1.22 billion. It also highlighted that 83% of total net bookings came from recurrent consumer spending, including DLCs and microtransactions, helping it initially witness an improvement in sales during this period. Empires & Puzzles, Toon Blast, GTA V, NBA 2K24, GTA Online, and other popular titles were the primary drivers of this growth.
GTA V on Twitch this year
Despite being more than a decade old, Grand Theft Auto V continues to enjoy a massive global following. It has so far made over $8.5 billion, including selling more than five million units in Q4 2023, no doubt helped by its Online component, its ever-popular role-play servers, and the Expanded and Enhanced version released in 2022.
Coming to Twitch viewership, this enduring popularity has ensured the game remains one of the staples of this service. Looking at just the 2024 audience numbers, it is the number one game by Hours Watched and the number two category, behind only Just Chatting.
GTA V is also among the ten most popular games and categories on the purple platform by peak online viewership, seeing 613.6K Peak Viewers and 185.3K Average Viewers so far this year. As mentioned above, while the game's story mode and characters have been played and discussed to a point where almost nothing remains a secret in the community, it is the RP aspect that has really kept the game going over the last few years.
Role-playing, which enjoyed a niche presence until that point, blew up during the COVID-19 pandemic era. With people stuck at home with nothing much to do, they turned to gaming to pass their time, and thousands, if not millions, took up GTA as their game of choice.
Leading the pack were some of the world's leading content creators, including the likes of buddha, PaulinhoLOKObr, xQc, loud_coringa, and fps_shaka. Their sudden love for this aspect of GTA V's gameplay saw it explode worldwide once again, helping the open-world title sell around 20 million copies in 2020.
This sudden wave of fame almost gave the game a second wind, although there was no indication it needed one as it was in pretty rude health until then. GTA V has used this momentum to stay relevant in 2024, and with GTA VI's announcement, fans — including lapsed ones — will continue to play it till the new edition comes out next year.
It has helped that many streamers who took up the game during the height of the lockdown era continue to play it. Japanese influencers have especially taken it up in droves thanks to the new VCR server that is a collaboration between VaultRoom (a clothing-merch brand and gaming space that partners with a lot of streamers) and Crazy Racoon (a famous esports team based in Japan).
When GTA VI comes out, it remains to be seen what will happen to the fifth main installment in the series. For now, it is not suffering from a lack of players or broadcasters, which is only good news for Rockstar Games as it gears up for perhaps its most important release to date in 2025.
Highest-selling video game franchises of all time
| # | Franchise | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mario | 879.41 million
|
| 2 | Tetris | 495 million
|
| 3 | Pokemon | 480 million
|
| 4 | Grand Theft Auto | 430 million
|
| 5 | Call of Duty | 425 million
|
The numero uno position here is none other than Mario, which first saw the light of day in 1981. Since then, it has spawned various series and multiple games, which together have accumulated a humungous 879.41 million units sold. The biggest contributor to this number is the Super Mario series, which itself has sold 430 million units, almost half the overall figure.
Next comes a rather unexpected name in Tetris, which first came out seven years after Mario. It has so far sold 495 million units, with paid mobile game downloads accounting for almost 86% of this figure. While not as glamorous as most of the games we see today, this falling-blocks puzzle video game remains a classic that even has its own world championship and other esports events.
Third is everyone's favorite media franchise, Pokemon, which has been sold 480 million times. Having started out as a role-playing video game for the Game Boy handheld game console in 1996, it has now become a global monster that encompasses animes, mangas, a trading card game, toys, merchandise, books, 20+ films (making it one of the highest-grossing animated film series), and other media.
The GTA series comes in fourth with 430 million units sold, of which GTA V has contributed a healthy 200 million units. This makes it the second-best-selling video game of all time, behind Minecraft, with the entire series consisting of eleven standalone games and four expansion packs. It is also the most successful video game franchise originating from the UK and is the best-selling action-adventure and open-world series. It was also the most-watched game franchise by watch time on Twitch in Q2 2024, ahead of competitors like League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and Dota 2.
Rounding off the top five is the legendary Call of Duty franchise, which has so far sold around 425 million units. Another name with numerous titles under its belt, it holds the Guinness World Records for being the best-selling first-person shooter game series of all time. The entire production line comprises 24 mainline games, with the latest addition being late 2023's Modern Warfare 3 and the next iteration being Call of Duty Black Ops 6, releasing this October.
