Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has pushed back against the suggestion that Red Dead Online was a missed opportunity due to its lack of support in comparison to GTA Online.
Red Dead Online came out around a month after Red Dead Redemption 2 arrived on shelves, and while it didn't quite light the world on fire in the same way GTA Online did, it was popular enough with players. However, while GTA Online has had a ton of content updates in its nearly 13 years of life, Rockstar pulled back on Red Dead after releasing the Dead Money expansion in 2021 – with a very brief return for 2025's "Strange Tales of the West." This left fans pondering what could have been with the online game, had Rockstar Games not dropped it.
When asked by IGN if he views Red Dead Online as a missed opportunity, given the lack of content compared to GTA Online, likely not drawing in players, Zelnick says, "There is literally nothing about Red Dead selling 85 million units that could signal a missed opportunity. And Red Dead Online has been immensely successful and long-lasting."
Zelnick adds, "If we didn't have Grand Theft Auto here at our company, then people would just talk about the fact that we have this massive franchise in Red Dead, which we do and of which we're very proud."
For context, Red Dead Redemption 2 is behind only Minecraft and GTA 5 on the best-selling games of all time list (and multiple versions of Tetris, though due to its multiple releases, many omit it as the top seller), so, as he puts it, the game itself is hardly a missed opportunity. Granted, he didn't really acknowledge the lack of content compared to GTA, and sure, Red Dead Online still has a big fanbase, but it does feel like it could've been even bigger.
