Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of Rockstar Games? Grand Theft Auto series, marks its biggest video game launch ever.
Those ruminating about the record-breaking potential of Grand Theft Auto V sales can stop now. Publisher Take-Two Interactive announced Wednesday that the game grossed an astounding $800 million in just 24 hours.
Those numbers mark the highest first-day retail sales of any title in Take-Two?s history, and the game has yet to reach markets in Japan and Brazil. GTA V also happens to be the most expensive game ever made, with a combined development and marketing budget of $265 million, which it?s just made back three times over.
To put that in perspective, the record for single-day game sales was last set in November with the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which made roughly $500 million. That means that Take-Two and developer Rockstar Games nearly made more in a single day than Black Ops II and GTA IV?s launch day sales combined. (GTA IV made $310 million on launch day in April 2008).
That?s also nearly double what the Hollywood record-holder, ?Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows ? Part 2,? made during its entire opening weekend.
Analysts had estimated that GTA V would make around $1.4 billion throughout its lifetime, but those estimates may need to be adjusted considering the game hit the 60 percent mark in a single day.
