GTA 5 is still selling millions a year, letting Rockstar do whatever it wants with GTA 6: analyst estimates 1.8 million just on PS5 in 2026
Rockstar's built a runway other developers can only dream of
If you're wondering how Rockstar's managed to financially justify holding back GTA 6 through all these delays, you don't have to look much further than GTA 5. Rockstar's last Grand Theft Auto title is continuing to sell by the millions even now, over a decade later, and a new estimate puts a more particular point on just how much GTA 5 continues to sell.
GTA 5 sold 387,000 copies on PlayStation last month, contributing to a total of 1.8 million units sold on PS5 for 2026, according to Alinea's latest estimates.
That number tracks with the official estimates we get from publisher Take-Two's financial reports, where the company regularly reports about 5 million more units sold every quarter. When you account for the additional sales on PS4, PC, and both generations of Xbox, it's easy to see how that 1.8 million estimate factors in.
Alinea's May estimate runs down the full top five on PS5 for May, with 007 First Light (1 million units sold), Minecraft (788,000), Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (757,000), and EA Sports FC 26 (411,000) filling up the spots ahead of GTA 5 on the platform.
It's a remarkable reminder of GTA 5's staying power, especially when you consider how much money GTA Online is making on top of all these unit sales. We rarely get specific numbers on microtransaction revenues, but leaks have suggested that GTA Online is pulling in something in the neighborhood of $8.4 million per week.
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has repeatedly emphasized that Rockstar's looking to "deliver perfection" with GTA 6, but it's rare for any studio to be afforded the time it takes to get anywhere near that standard. GTA 5's uncommon success has given Rockstar an extended runway, and we're now just a few months away from finally seeing what takes off from it.
Here's hoping we have another heavy hitter in the ranks of the best Rockstar games soon.
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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.
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