Red Dead Redemption 2 Won't Match GTA 5 Sales, Of Course

Grand Theft Auto V developer Rockstar Games' next project, Red Dead Redemption 2, is expected to be one of the biggest and best-selling games of 2018. It's certainly going to be huge and dense, as we learned in our recent hands-on time. But it's not going to sell as well as Rockstar's last game, GTA V, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

In an interview with GI.biz this summer, Zelnick said it would be unrealistic to think Red Dead Redemption 2--or any other game--would sell as well as GTA V. That game has shifted an astonishing 95 million units to become one of the most successful entertainment products of any kind in human history. Red Dead Redemption 2 will still do "incredibly well," Zelnick said, even if it doesn't match GTA V's sales mark.

"It's hard to expect anything to perform as well as the most profitable entertainment product of all time," Zelnick said. "I don't think that's a realistic expectation. Our hope, and also belief, is that Red Dead Redemption 2 will be an extraordinary creative product and that it will do incredibly well. Beyond that I can't say--I don't think anyone can say. We have to release it and see what consumers think."

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Red Dead Redemption 1, which launched in 2010, was a massive success. It sold 13 million copies as of 2013, and that figure has no doubt risen higher since. Take-Two does not release sales projections, but one analyst believes Red Dead Redemption 2 will sell at least 15 million units.

In April this year, one analyst said Rockstar may never have a bigger hit than Grand Theft Auto V when it comes to sales. "Michael Jackson had a lot of hit albums but he only had one 'Thriller,'" analyst Doug Creutz said.

Red Dead Redemption 2 launches at the end of October amid a busy release calendar for big-name games. Other huge games coming out in October and November include Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Fallout 76, among others. Zelnick told GI.biz that while he is confident Red Dead Redemption 2 will sell well, he's not going to claim success before it's occured.

"We're running scared too," he said. "I think a healthy degree of paranoia and insecurity about releases is probably a good thing. I'm fond of saying that arrogance is the enemy of continued success. We don't believe in our success until we deliver it. We never claim victory until it's occurred. We have very powerful, smart, capable competitors bringing great products to market and we need to win--that means we have to work harder than the next guy."

Red Dead Redemption 2 News And Details

• Red Dead Redemption 2: We Played It On PS4, Here's Everything We Saw
• Watch: We Played Red Dead Redemption 2
• Red Dead Redemption 2: All The New Features
• Red Dead Redemption 2's Most Surprising Features And Details
• Red Dead Redemption 2: Everything We Just Learned
• Like GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 Is Playable In First-Person
• Here Are Red Dead Redemption 2's HUD Options
• Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Can Swim, Unlike John Marston
• Here's 27 New Red Dead Redemption 2 Screens
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Will Feature Woody Jackson's Music Again
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Has A Selfie Camera
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Lets You Drift On A Horse
• Red Dead Redemption 2's New Animal-Skinning Animation Is Truly A Sight To Behold
• Red Dead Redemption 2's Online Mode Gets A Beta A Month After Release Day
• Why Red Dead Redemption 2's Online Mode Is Launching After The Main Game
• Rockstar Will Stagger GTA 5 Online And Red Dead Online Update Releases
• Red Dead Online Learns Its Lessons From GTA Online