Take-Two says GTA VI pre-orders are at "unprecedented levels," but shares no numbers and holds its $8 billion outlook

Status: Confirmed. This comes from Take-Two's earnings release and its November 9 investor call.

Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company, reported quarterly results ten days before GTA VI launches. As in August, when it called them "exceptional" (our story), it didn't share a pre-order number, but CEO Strauss Zelnick says pre-orders keep reaching "unprecedented levels," and the company is holding its fiscal-year outlook of $8.0 to $8.2 billion in net bookings for the year ending March 2027.

What Take-Two said about GTA VI

• Zelnick, in the release: "The launch of Grand Theft Auto VI is ten days away and, with pre-orders continuing to reach unprecedented levels, we expect to deliver an historic year for our company."
• Zelnick, on the call: pre-orders are tracking "far in excess" of initial expectations, and "the numbers will speak for themselves soon enough." On marketing, he said they track awareness and anticipation and "everything is trending very positively."
• Karl Slatoff, president: pre-loads are rolling out worldwide, and he called it "a defining moment" for the company.
• The campaign, by Take-Two's numbers: the Extended Look was Netflix's most-watched title of the week, with 31 million viewers in its first four days, and three soundtrack songs debuted in the top 10 of their Billboard charts.
• Ultimate Edition: CFO Lainie Goldstein confirmed the $20 gap over the Standard Edition counts as recurrent consumer spending, since that content can also be bought separately.

Why not raise the outlook?

An analyst asked exactly that. Zelnick's answer: "We're days away from the launch of GTA 6 and we tend to avoid claiming success before it occurs." Once they have post-launch data, they'll share it.

For the October to December quarter, the launch quarter, Take-Two expects $3.35 to $3.5 billion in net bookings. According to Investing.com, that's slightly below the analyst average of $3.51 billion. Operating expenses for the quarter will rise about 21%, mainly from GTA VI marketing.

What about PC?

Another analyst asked whether rising console prices could speed up GTA VI on PC or streaming. Zelnick didn't bite: any news on new versions "will always come from our labels," meaning Rockstar. In the release's calendar, GTA VI is listed only for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. GamesBeat reported in October that the PC version would arrive between January and March 2027 (our story); Take-Two hasn't confirmed it.

The quarter in numbers

• Net bookings: $1.6 billion, down 18% year over year and slightly below its own guidance ($1.62 to $1.67 billion).
• The GTA series beat forecast for the quarter, per Zelnick, while NBA 2K27 came in below.
• GTA V is closing in on 235 million units sold, and Rockstar will keep updating GTA Online.
• Bottom line: a $54 million net loss on $1.497 billion in revenue.

Think GTA VI will break every launch record? Tell us in the forum.