Take-Two says GTA 6 pre-orders are "far in excess" of expectations, but gives no number

In the prepared remarks for its November 9, 2026 earnings call, Take-Two said pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI are tracking "far in excess" of what it first expected, ten days before launch. It gave no number: neither the results release nor the remarks has a GTA VI pre-order or sales figure.

The company kept its fiscal 2027 forecast for net bookings at $8 to $8.2 billion. That range covers every Take-Two label, not GTA VI alone, and the company did not split out the game's share. CEO Strauss Zelnick said in the release: "The launch of Grand Theft Auto VI is ten days away and, with pre-orders continuing to reach unprecedented levels, we expect to deliver an historic year for our company."

"Unprecedented" is Zelnick's word, with no figure to test it against, and Take-Two has not called it a record, so neither do we. In the prepared remarks, Zelnick added that the numbers "will speak for themselves soon enough." Chief financial officer Lainie Goldstein said "the level of pre-orders generated is extraordinary", and president Karl Slatoff said "pre-loads are rolling out across the world."

The results themselves were weaker. Net bookings for the July to September quarter were $1.60 billion, down 18% from $1.96 billion a year earlier. Goldstein said that was modestly below the company's own guidance. She said the Grand Theft Auto series was up on last year, and NBA 2K and mobile were down.

Take-Two's forecast for the October to December quarter is net bookings of $3,350 to $3,500 million and GAAP net revenue of $3,270 to $3,420 million. These are company-wide projections that include the launch, not a forecast for GTA VI. Goldstein said the quarter's forecast assumes significant growth in the Grand Theft Auto series' recurrent consumer spending (add-ons and in-game purchases), with Ultimate Edition sales as the driver.

Two other claims are Take-Two's own. It said Grand Theft Auto V has sold nearly 235 million units worldwide. It also said the Extended Look drew 31 million consumers on Netflix in its first four days. Netflix's own figure, reported by Video Games Chronicle in September, was 31.1 million views, and Netflix counts a view as total watch time divided by runtime, not as one person.

The release lists GTA VI for November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only. Other titles in the same list include PC, and the prepared remarks do not mention a PC version of GTA VI.

Our view: the date and platforms are as firm as a company statement can make them, and the only new information about demand is a description, not a measurement. Real figures will have to come from Take-Two after launch.