First-day sales for GTA 5 clear $800 million

GTA 5 sold more than $800 million worth of copies in its first day on store shelves. Those are the highest first-day retail figures in Take-Two history, the publisher announced today, and that doesn't even count digital sales on PSN and Xbox Live.

In comparison, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 sold $500 million worth of copies in its first 24 hours, and it took 15 days for it to reach $1 billion. With launch in Japan and Brazil forthcoming, and further sales from folks who prefer not to deal with release-day madness, GTA 5 should sail past $1 billion in days rather than weeks.

“All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to Grand Theft Auto V," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a press release. "Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry's new standard for creativity, innovation and excellence."

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.