Grand Theft Auto IV breaks record

First-week sales top $500 million

By Danny King -- Video Business, 5/7/2008

MAY 7 | Grand Theft Auto IV, which Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games released to the public April 29, set one-day and first-week all-time records for videogames.

The title grossed more than $500 million during its first week, representing about 6 million units, with an opening-day take of about $310 million, Take-Two said in a statement today.

Retailers such as Best Buy, GameStop and Blockbuster fed demand by holding midnight openings last Monday night.

GTA IV’s first-week sales beat the previous record held by Microsoft’s Halo 3, which had first-week revenue of more than $300 million when it launched last year. Analysts expected GTA IV’s launch-week sales to be in the $400 million range.

As an entertainment product, GTA IV's launch sales also beat the opening week of theatrical blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which grossed $404 million in its first six days worldwide, according to VB sister publication Variety.

With 6 million units sold, GTA IV is fast approaching the 9.3 million units Take-Two sold of the franchise’s previous release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was launched in fall 2004 and accounted for about a third of Take-Two’s $1.2 billion in revenue that year.

With GTA IV being released halfway through Take-Two’s fiscal year, analysts expect the company’s revenue to jump more than 40% to about $1.4 billion for the year ending Oct. 31.

The success of the franchise, whose first release was in 1997, helped attract worldwide games publishing leader Electronic Arts, which in February made a $26 a share bid that valued Take-Two at about $2 billion. That bid has since been rejected by Take-Two shareholders.

GTA IV also has attracted legislators and others who have taken issue with the controversial game, objecting to its violence and seeking videogame sales regulations.

The demand for the title mirrors a gaming industry that has surged as sales of DVDs and compact discs have either flattened or fallen. U.S. consumers bought $9.5 billion worth of videogames last year, up 28% from 2006, according to NPD Group.

Jennifer Netherby contributed