GTA 5 Ships 70 Million Copies, as GTA Online Continues to Grow

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2K Games, reported earnings today for its fiscal Q2 2017 (ended September 30), providing an update on the company's business outlook. Among the key takeaways was that Grand Theft Auto V has sold-in 70 million copies (up from 65 million), while its online mode, GTA Online, continues to grow. Additionally, Mafia III shipped 4.5 million copies in its first week, while NBA 2K17 sold-in 4.5 million copies since its launch in September. Further, total shipments of games in the Civilization series have now reached 37 million copies (up from 35 million) in its history.

In terms of money, net revenue grew 21 percent to $420.2 million, up from $347 million during the same period last year. Leading drivers of revenue for the period were NBA 2K16, GTA V, GTA Online, BioShock: The Collection, and XCOM 2.

Revenue from digital sources jumped by 14 percent to $230.8 million, up from $202.4 million. What Take-Two calls recurrent consumer spending (virtual currency, DLC, and online game revenue), accounted for 31 percent of total revenue and 56 percent of digitally delivered revenue. NBA 2K16, GTA V, and GTA Online were called out as leading growth drivers in this area.

As for "bookings," which comprise physical games shipped to retail and digitally delivered revenue, this grew 28 percent to $452.8 million, compared to $353 million during the same period last year. Main contributors were NBA 2K17, NBA 2K16, GTA V, GTA Online, BioShock: The Collection, and XCOM 2.

Catalog sales alone made up $193.7 million of bookings, fueled by sales of GTA and NBA 2K titles.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a prepared statement that GTA Online, which came out more than three years ago, continues to see year-over-year growth in bookings. A year ago this month, GTA Online had 8 million players a week, though Take-Two has not updated that figure since.

Rockstar has regularly supported GTA Online with new content. Most recently, the developer launched a Halloween event for the game.

As for the aforementioned NBA 2K17, the game had a "record" first week in terms of shipments, but a specific figure was not shared. Additionally, Take-Two confirmed that Civilization VI has shipped 1 million units since launch.

Take-Two posted a profit of $36.4 million for the period, down from the profit of $54.7 million that it made this quarter last year. As of September 30, Take-Two reported that it had cash and equivalents of $1.175 billion on hand.

Take-Two is currently holding an earnings call to discuss these results. We'll report back with more information if anything noteworthy is discussed.