According to Newzoo, global pre-orders for GTA 6 reached an estimated $260 million during the first week of the campaign

A man and woman dance closely in a dimly lit, purple-hued nightclub with blurred figures dancing in the background under a disco ball. — Image credit: Rockstar

By the end of June's final week, digital pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 amassed approximately $260 million, with $180 million contributed by consumers from the US and five key European countries—namely the UK, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy—according to Newzoo data.

GTA 6 pre-orders kicked off on June 24. The game will be released exclusively as a digital version, priced at $79.99 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Projections from Newzoo anticipate that Rockstar's much-awaited game could garner between $3.3 billion and $5.2 billion in sales during its launch week slated for November.

The data suggests that the pre-order trend for GTA 6 aligns with typical sequel patterns, with pre-orders contributing to 5.8% of the total expected sales.

Expectations are that by the game's debut week, sales could hit $4.5 billion, corresponding to roughly 51 million units sold at the predicted average price.

Ronan Patrick, a management consultant at Newzoo, clarified reports circulating on social media: "GTA 6 hasn't achieved a billion dollars in pre-orders 21 weeks before launch. This claim is unreasonable. Pre-order trends show this has never happened and is unlikely to happen soon."

He added, "The available data points to $180 million in digital pre-orders from the US and major European markets during late June, indicating an early global figure of around $260 million, with significant growth expected."

Patrick concluded by noting, "Even using a conservative approach, assuming GTA 6 exceeds typical launch sales for any major title in our records, it's achieving remarkable figures by those standards."