Twelve years after its launch, GTA 5 still sells like it's brand new.
While the rest of the industry is busy pushing out fresh IPs and sequels, Rockstar’s juggernaut from 2013 continues to post quarterly numbers that most modern releases could only dream of.
Just this year, Take-Two confirmed that GTA 5 has sold more than 215 million units worldwide, which is impressive on its own and even more so because the numbers keep growing.
It’s a game that moves five million units every three months, outperforming almost all major releases this year besides Monster Hunter Wilds. Rockstar’s ability to keep GTA Online relevant is one of the main reasons the game hasn’t lost its footing.
Players keep returning thanks to seasonal updates, roleplay servers, and rewards like GTA$ bonuses and subscription benefits. Even the Enhanced Edition release gave GTA 5 a new wave of popularity on platforms like Steam, where it broke into the most-played lists once again.
Meanwhile, the anticipation for GTA 6 is stoking the flames even more. The debut trailer shattered records on YouTube by reaching 93 million views within a day. That record quickly fell as the second trailer gained 475 million views across platforms within 24 hours.
Pushing GTA 6’s release to May 2026 hasn’t hurt GTA 5’s sales; if anything, it gives Rockstar more time to keep profiting from their hit. The game’s long-term success also owes a lot to how accessible it’s been. Hardly any titles have spanned as many platforms, generations, and storefronts.
No matter if it’s PS3, PS5, Xbox 360, Series X, or various PCs over the past decade, GTA 5 has been continuously accessible, often refreshed, and welcoming to all players. Such broad availability is what keeps a hit game alive as a platform.
Let’s keep in mind GTA 5 didn’t just sell well—it rewrote the rules for blockbuster sales. It became the fastest entertainment product to reach $1 billion in retail revenue, beating not only games but every other form of media in history.
Even now, in 2025, it remains the best-selling game of the past ten years in the U.S. People talk about games with long tails, yet GTA 5 goes beyond that and lives a second life.
While developers struggle to keep new titles in the spotlight for more than a few weeks, Rockstar’s decade-old titan keeps showing up, topping charts, and setting new records like it’s routine. With GTA 6 still a year away, GTA 5 might just have another record-breaking stretch ahead of it.