Red Dead 2 Has Sold Very, Very Well, Take-Two Shares New Figures

Take-Two Interactive has reported strong financial results for the third quarter of 2019, led by the huge success of Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2. In a statement, the company confirmed that, to date, Red Dead Redemption 2 has "sold-in more than 23 million units worldwide." It's worth noting that "sold-in" means shipped to retailers and not necessarily to consumers. However, typically, sold-in stock is a good indication of how much is sold through to people.

Take-Two's revenue grew to $1.2 billion, which is up from $480 million during the same period in the previous financial year. "The largest contributors to net revenue in fiscal third quarter 2019 were Red Dead Redemption 2, NBA 2K19 and NBA 2K18, Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, WWE 2K19 and WWE SuperCard, Dragon City and Monster Legends, and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI," Take-Two said.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was also noted as being one of the largest contributors to digitally-delivered revenue in the quarter, alongside Grand Theft Auto Online, Grand Theft Auto V, and NBA 2K18, among others.

"Our outperformance was driven primarily by the record-breaking launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 along with strong results from NBA 2K19," added Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. "In addition, consumers engaged significantly with our offerings, and recurrent consumer spending grew 31% to a new record. We generated strong cash flow and ended the period with $1.6 billion in cash and short-term investments, after deploying $109 million to repurchase 1 million shares of our stock."

Red Dead Redemption 2 has now outsold its predecessor, Red Dead Redemption, by a comfortable margin. As of February 2017 the first Red Dead Redemption has sold 15 million units in total. Its sequel has managed to shoot past this number in a fraction of the time. In an investor call, Zelnick highlighted that Red Dead Redemption 2 has "sold more in its first eight days than its predecessor sold in eight years."

Red Dead Redemption 2 has received critical acclaim, earning a 9/10 from GameSpot. Kallie Plagge described it as "an excellent prequel, but it's also an emotional, thought-provoking story in its own right, and it's a world that is hard to leave when it's done." You can read our full Red Dead Redemption 2 review for more of Kallie's thoughts on it.