The studio has been facing a sort of hostage situation, with hackers threatening to leak data unless the studio pays a substantial amount of money. However, with the latter refusing to do so and the data released, parent company Take-Two has seen a very welcome uptick in its stock prices.

Apparently, knowing how much money the company is making off IPs like Grand Theft Auto Online has increased investor confidence in its prospects. Given its rather high daily earnings, it’s certainly not surprising. It’s always great to report on a win, and with Grand Theft Auto 6 reportedly turning out to be quite expensive, the $1 billion increase in Take-Two’s valuation, as reported on by Insider Gaming, should be an outcome that has delighted the company.

Hopefully, it’s motivated the folks over at Rockstar as it enters the final leg of a very long development cycle on what’s arguably its magnum opus, launching on November 19th for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Marketing is expected to begin this Summer, with Take-Two confident about the current release date.

According to this data, Rockstar Games made, on average, around $1.3 million in daily revenue from just Grand Theft Auto Online over the last year. Taking a wider look, the weekly revenue for the online game comes in at around $9.5 million. For comparison, Red Dead Online doesn’t seem to be nearly as profitable, bringing in an average of $507,193 on a weekly basis. For an entire year – from September 2025 to April 2026 – Grand Theft Auto Online has seemingly generated around $498.8 million. The numbers for Red Dead Online, the two-year period between June 2024 and March 2026, generated an average of $26.4 million in yearly revenue.

The data also includes revenue by platform. The PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto Online seems to be the most popular, with around 3.4 million weekly active users, who generate around $4.4 million through weekly purchases in-game. The PS4 is the second most popular, with 1.8 million weekly active users generating $973,308. Xbox Series X/S saw 1.1 million weekly active users, making Rockstar Games around $1.8 million, and Xbox One still sees around a million weekly players, generating $918,373. PC is in last place, with 894,621 weekly players generating $264,273.

It is worth noting that the PC version’s low revenue generation might come down to the fact that the platform allows players to play modded versions of Grand Theft Auto Online. This, along with the popularity of custom servers that support a variety of mods, means that players are less likely to partake in Rockstar Games’ in-game microtransaction options like Shark Cards.

Rockstar Games, for its part, hasn’t commented on any of the data that has been released by the hackers, which should also bring into question their veracity.

ShinyHunters had gotten its hands on the data over the weekend by taking advantage of Rockstar Games’ instances in Snowflake by using the recently breached Anodot. The group had announced that it would be releasing all of the data unless the company paid them by today. While ShinyHunters promised “several annoying (digital) problems” would pop up for Rockstar Games, the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer simply responded by saying that it “has no impact on our organization or our players.”

Grand Theft Auto 6 is deep in development as Rockstar Games, along with parent company Take-Two Interactive, get ready for its November 19th release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. While few details have been released as part of the company’s careful marketing strategies, a report from last month has indicated that its development costs may go over $2 billion. For more, check out our thoughts on whether Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be the most expensive game ever made.

“Look, Rockstar Games is the locus of information about, you know, where the titles go content and marketing, and generally, we have a pretty light touch when we talk about the label’s creative activities,” said Zelnick. “At the same time, I have every reason to believe we’ll continue to support GTA Online. There’s a great community that loves it, that stays engaged. And again in this quarter, Rockstar has shown that when you deliver great additional content, despite how long [GTA Online] has been at market, people show up.”

Zelnick had shared similar sentiments about GTA Online back in February 2025, when he spoke about Take-Two Interactive’s commitment to long-running multiplayer games. He had brought up titles like 2012’s NBA 2K Online, which continued to see support even after the release of its sequel five years later.

“I’m going to speak theoretically only because I’m not going to talk about a particular project when an announcement hasn’t been made,” said Zelnick at the time. “But generally speaking, we support our properties when the consumers are involved with those titles. As an example, we launched NBA 2K Online in China, I think originally in 2012 if I’m not mistaken. And then we launched NBA 2K Online 2 in China in 2017. If I’m not mistaken. We did not sunset Online 1. They both are still in the market and they serve consumers and they’re alive and we have this massive audience.”

“So we’ve shown a willingness to support legacy titles when a community wants to be engaged with them.”

While neither Rockstar Games nor Take-Two Interactive have confirmed this yet, Grand Theft Auto 6 will also likely end up getting its own equivalent to GTA Online. While both will likely see continued development and support in the short term, the newer iteration of GTA Online will probably see more and more players jump into it to make use of the latest release’s features. In the long term, once enough players have migrated, GTA Online will most probably get shut down.

It is also worth noting that, while some of Take-Two Interactive’s releases have seen long-term support, others haven’t been so lucky. A key example of this is the WWE 2K franchise, with a new release often causing all online components of older entries to get shut down. WWE 2K24 is the latest example of this, with it being taken down from digital stores as of February 2.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and will be coming out on November 19 after having seen several delays. More delays might be unlikely, with marketing plans for the release being on track to kick off this Summer, according to Zelnick.

On Xbox? Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 5, Roblox and Minecraft. What’s even crazier is that these are the same as 2024’s most-played titles on both platforms, though Call of Duty on Xbox fell from first to second place year-over-year.

However, despite critics and fans dragging last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 for its horrendous campaign, and Battlefield 6 emerging as the best-selling premium title, the brand still has some pull. Of course, there’s also the free-to-play component, Call of Duty: Warzone, which remains a significant presence. The same goes for Grand Theft Auto Online, although even standalone, it isn’t free.

Then again, Grand Theft Auto 5 has shipped over 220 million units and is available on three different console generations, so its popularity seems a given. Which only makes you wonder just how much more successful Grand Theft Auto 6 will be, even if it doesn’t ship with its own multiplayer mode at launch. It’s slated for launch on November 19th after two big delays.

Vogel – whose credits include EverQuest, Star Wars: Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and New World – was asked by WCCF Tech about MMOs and their retention rate in the West. “Yes, I believe a large audience is waiting for the right MMORPG to emerge. Consider the millions of players who have played and continue to play World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Elder Scrolls Online, Ultima Online, EverQuest, Fallout 76, and others.

“The problem is that no publisher is willing to invest the money and take the risk at this time. My instinct tells me that the next major MMORPG will likely come from Asia and/or Europe. If what I have been hearing about GTA 6’s features and gameplay is true, it could evolve into an MMORPG, as many of its planned features are typically found in MMORPGs.”

Again, this is likely referring to the GTA Online portion of the game rather than its story mode (which Rockstar has kept separate in GTA 5). What those “planned features” could be is the real question. After all, you can already customize living spaces and properties, invite friends over, roam the world together, and even partake in multi-stage heists.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 launching on November 19th, 2026 (assuming there’s not another delay), we may find out in the first half of next year.

According to the report, there have been a total of 71 million games sold in 2025 across PC and consoles in Europe, which marks a 6 percent drop over the same period from 2024. This data accounts for sales having taken place up to July 28. Of the 71 million game sales, 52 million were digital copies, while 19.7 million were physical copies. These are 3 percent and 9 percent reductions over the previous year, and around 74 percent of games sold this year in Europe have been digital, which, when it comes to percentages, is a 2 percent rise from 2024.

The best-selling game in Europe in 2025 has been EA Sports FC 25. The title was released back in 2024, and taking it into account, Assassin’s Creed Shadows currently sits in the number 2 spot for game sales overall in Europe across PC and consoles. The top 20 sales chart, which you can check out below, also include other games released this year, including The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, Elden Ring: Nightreign, and Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World. It is worth noting that digital sales data for Nintendo games hasn’t been revealed.

The data, coming from official European charts company GSD, also interestingly omits Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It was noted as being missing because publisher Kepler Interactive hasn’t shared sales data for the game with GSD. An analyst from GSD, Sam Naji, also revealed some details about how game spending has changed for PC and consoles over the year.

In his analysis, Naji said that the first 19 weeks of 2025 saw spending drop by 2 percent compared to 2024, down to €1.33 billion, while the number of copies sold dropped by 9 percent. He attributed this to the average price of games having gone up by around 8 percent, with gamers spending an average of €29 per game, when compared to 2024’s average of €27 per game. He also noted that digital spending had gone up by 8 percent compared to a 6 percent drop in number of units sold, attributing it to a 15 percent rise in average price for digital games – €22 to €25 per game.

Best Selling Games in Europe for 2025 Across PC and Consoles:

1. EA Sports FC 25 (EA)
2. Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft)
3. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
4. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
5. Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
6. Split Fiction (EA)
7. Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom)
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Activision Blizzard)
9. Mario Kart World (Nintendo)
10. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Plaion)
11. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Bethesda)
12. Star Wars Battlefront 2 (EA)
13. Elden Ring: Nightreign (Bandai Namco)
14. It Takes Two (EA)
15. Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)
16. NBA 2K25 (2K Games)
17. F1 25 (EA)
18. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
19. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)
20. Battlefield 1 (EA)

According to Zelnick, this comes from the fact that, for more than a decade now, Rockstar’s main contribution to the Grand Theft Auto franchise has been through the release of updates for GTA Online. He compares this to a time before an Internet connection was ubiquitous, and a game would simply be released before the studio would move on to its next project.

“Remember, back in the good old days, or the bad old days depending how you look at it,” said Zelnick. “We would work on a title, release the title, hope for the best, and then make another title. Now we have the opportunity for consumers to engage on an on-going basis with our hits. Be that through downloadable add-on content, or through multiplayer versions of those games.”

In more modern times, Zelnick compared the amount of content that has been added to GTA Online to being equivalent to being like full releases in the past. “In the case of Grand Theft Auto, we have Grand Theft Auto Online, and Rockstar has been supplying content to Grand Theft Auto Online, some of which is so robust that if you go back 15 years, it would have counted as a standalone title,” he said.

“One could really argue that Rockstar has been putting out a new Grand Theft Auto release a couple of times a year. Same thing holds true for Red Dead Online, which has been on-going. And in the most recent quarter, Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online has exceeded expectations.”

He also brings up the fact that similar online components available in games like the NBA 2K or the WWE 2K franchises have extended the time players spend with these games up from just a few months “to basically 12 months.”

“Our strategy is when we give consumers a hit, they would like to stay engaged,” explained Zelnick. “And that requires our teams to create more content quite properly, to support that content and to market that content. The business has become a worldwide, on-going business. I would argue that Rockstar is delivering to its consumer base daily, and it has been doing that for quite some time, basically since 2014.”

Since the release of GTA 5, the only major title released by Rockstar Games has been 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2. However, since then, the studio has been working on Grand Theft Auto 6, and work on the highly-anticipated open world game began “in earnest” in 2020. There have also been other releases in the GTA franchise in the time between GTA 5 and now, including Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which included GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Since GTA Online differentiates between PC players on the regular edition of GTA 5 and the more recent Enhanced Edition release, PC Game Pass players have access to both versions of the game so that they can hop online with their friends without worrying about version mismatch errors.

Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Edition was released as a free update to PC players back in March. On launch, however, the game was met with mixed reviews from its players. Even now, GTA 5 Enhanced Edition has a user review aggregate of Mixed on Steam, featuring more than 33,000 user reviews.

While players have been quite happy with the visual and performance upgrades brought in by the Enhanced Edition release, many have complained about technical issues, including HDR not being supported in some cases. More recent reviews have complained about GTA Online lobbies feeling much emptier than they used to, as well as the heavy-handed implementation of microtransactions.

The enhancements brought in to the PC version of GTA 5 include the graphical upgrades we first saw with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game. The upgrade also brought with it a host of new vehicles, along with new activities to take on like the Wildlife Photography Challenge.

GTA 5 Enhanced Edition is also hoping to bolster the player base for GTA Online by giving newer players a gentler learning curve by letting them have GTA$4,000,000 to start out with.

For more details about Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Edition, check out our thoughts about why it offers little more than a relatively decent visual upgrade, with its new content not quite feeling up to par with the rest of the game.

Since its release back in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 has been incredibly successful for developer Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive. Back in February, Take-Two revealed during its quarterly earnings report that more than 210 million copies of GTA 5 have been sold worldwide. This brings up cumulative sales for the GTA franchise as a whole up to more than 440 million units.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has also been doing quite well. While not as successful in terms of copies sold as GTA 5, the game still managed to sell more than 70 million copies worldwide.

In the meantime, Rockstar is currently developing Grand Theft Auto 6. While no details about the game have been revealed so far, many developers are holding their breath since it will likely be a massive launch that has far-reaching effects on the gaming industry. The game is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There has been no word of a PC release so far.

Right off the bat, PC players will gain access to new vehicles at Hao’s Special Works with the option to upgrade certain cars. They can also partake in the Wildlife Photography Challenge to photograph animals in San Andreas, avail of GTA+ and manage their GTA Online empire via the Career Progress page.

The update will also provide a good entry point for new players courtesy of the revamped Landing Page and GTA$4,000,000 for kickstarting their career of choice.

Stay tuned for more details on Grand Theft Auto 5’s PC update in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out our review of the PS5 version.

While he didn’t offer specific details, Zelnick spoke about the publisher’s willingness to support its older titles, as long as there is still interest in the player base. As an example, Zelnick pointed to NBA 2K Online – a China-exclusive online game launched back in 2012 – which was followed up by the 2017 launch of NBA 2K Online 2. The servers for both titles are still live.

“I’m going to speak theoretically only because I’m not going to talk about a particular project when an announcement hasn’t been made,” Zelnick said to IGN. “But generally speaking, we support our properties when the consumers are involved with those titles. As an example, we launched NBA 2K Online in China, I think originally in 2012 if I’m not mistaken. And then we launched NBA 2K Online 2 in China in 2017. If I’m not mistaken. We did not sunset Online 1. They both are still in the market and they serve consumers and they’re alive and we have this massive audience.”

“So we’ve shown a willingness to support legacy titles when a community wants to be engaged with them.”

While Zelnick has a point in that particular instance, publisher Take-Two has also shown a willingness to shut down the servers for some of its older titles in order to promote newer releases in the franchise. A prime example of this would be this year’s closure of the WWE 2K23 servers, which brought an end to multiplayer as well as community creations. This was done in order to get players that want to focus on multiplayer to move to the more recent WWE 2K24, or wait for the upcoming WWE 2K25.

When it comes to GTA Online itself, things could go either way. Both the publisher, as well as developer Rockstar Games have invested quite a bit of time and money into the game to add tonnes of content over the years. Interestingly, Red Dead Online is also still live, despite never reaching the heights of popularity that its GTA cousin did.

A recent report has indicated that GTA 6 would have some sort of emphasis on user-generated content. What this means for the title, and whether we’ll see the user-generated content also show up in the follow-up to GTA Online, is currently unknown. Developer Rockstar has seemingly been in talks with the companies behind Fortnite and Roblox, both of which have quite a bit of support for user-generated content.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is slated for release some time in Fall this year. The game is currently in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There has been no solid announcement yet of a potential PC release of the game. Recent rumours, however, have indicated that we might see the open-world title come to PC in early 2026.