Red Dead Redemption 2 Has Huge Opening, Outsells RDR In Just Eight Days

Red Dead Redemption 2 was indeed the commercial juggernaut it was expected to be. Parent publisher Take-Two announced that the game has passed 17 million copies shipped worldwide following its October 26 release for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It needed just over a week to pass the lifetime shipment figure of the 2010 game, Red Dead Redemption. According to Take-Two, Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped more units over its first eight days than the 2010 title shipped in its first eight years.

Red Dead Redemption 2 earned more than $725 million in revenue of its opening weekend, which represented the best opening weekend for any piece of entertainment in history, according to Take-Two. Rockstar's previous game, Grand Theft Auto V, made $1 billion over its first three days, but it launched on a Tuesday compared to a Friday for RDR 2. That means cowboy game can claim largest opening weekend ever while GTA V remains the biggest overall three-day launch.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was also the most pre-ordered game ever on the PlayStation Network, while it also drove the most single-day sales on PSN and the most sales over three days on PSN.

While Red Dead Redemption 2 is finally here, the game's online mode, Red Dead Online, isn't slated to launch until later this month. It is expected to be a big-time money-maker, following on from the oversized success of GTA Online. Like GTA Online, Red Dead Online is expected to contain microtransactions, which could prove to be lucrative if GTA Online is anything to go on.

Another way Red Dead Redemption 2 could make even more money is by launching on PC, as is rumoured. In the newest episode of GameSpot's original show, Steam Punks, Jess McDonell and Edmond Tran talk about the reasons why Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't on PC yet and why it may eventually come to the platform. You can watch the new show in the embed above.