Rockstar's anticipated next entry in its legendary series, GTA 6, is expected to make an obscene amount of cash. Considering that its predecessor, GTA 5, sold more than 200 million units across its lifespan, it's not surprising that analysts expect the sequel to make $3.2 billion in its first year of sales alone.
Add an expected billion in preorder sales before launch, and we're really cookin' with gas; the momentum of such an economic event will apparently kick off a new era of "renewed interest" in video games. These predictions come from a report from the reliably sober Financial Times, based on DFC Intelligence data (thanks, IGN), and suggest that GTA 6 will easily be 2025's biggest entertainment release. That honour apparently went to the film Inside Out 2 in 2024, which generated just under $1.7 billion, for comparison. When it launched in 2014, GTA 5, grossing $1 billion, was considered the biggest entertainment release in history.
FT estimates that GTA 6 has cost Take-Two Interactive somewhere in the range of the high hundreds of millions of dollars, to as much as a truly silly $2 billion to develop (take that, Concord). Despite that, CEO Strauss Zelnick seems to be pleased with how matters are proceeding, telling FT: "I never claim victory before it occurs. That said, I think Rockstar Games will once again deliver something absolutely phenomenal… Certainly, the anticipation is high."