RDR 2 on Track to Become 6th Best-Selling Game in Industry History
Red Dead Redemption 2 is far from the results of Grand Theft Auto 5, but Rockstar Games' western is still one of the biggest bestsellers in video game history.
The financial report of Take-Two Interactive for the first quarter of the current fiscal year brought a lot of information. The publisher's documents not only reaffirmed the release date and potential plans for GTA 6 but also indicated that the Red Dead Redemption series continues to perform very-well.
Red Dead Redemption and GTA
Let's be clear: GTA remains not only the undisputed king of Take-Two Interactive games but also one of the biggest hits on the market. The total sales of all versions of the gangster series by Rockstar Games studio exceeded 430 million copies.
The fifth installment alone - undoubtedly the most popular part of the series - sold over 200 million copies (although this result was achieved in the previous fiscal year). Apart from Minecraft (and possibly Tetris, depending on the interpretation of data), no other game even comes close to this result, including the Red Dead series.
However, Rockstar's western is also doing great – Red Dead Redemption 2 is the seventh most-purchased game in history. The title still has a long way to go to reach the next position - Mario Kart Deluxe 8 with a result of over 71 million copies - but it's worth noting that since February, 4 million copies have been sold (from 61 to 65 million).
The total sales of the Red Dead series have exceeded 91 million copies.
Games-services and ambitious plans
Overall, in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Take-Two Interactive recorded a 4 percent year-on-year revenue increase - to $1.34 billion. This is partly the result of "amortization of losses" related to Zynga, acquired by the company in 2022 for $12.7 billion, but (as Bloomberg pointed out at the end of 2023) despite the success of some titles, the publisher, unfortunately, chose the timing of this acquisition at a time of "repair" of the mobile market (and some unfortunate changes, including in the App Store).
Nonetheless, it's still a good start to the new fiscal year, and the company has ambitious plans. The future of Take-Two is to be "investing in the strongest and most diversified development process in the company's history."
The report also mentions “driving virtual sales in already-released games,” pointing to the NBA 2K series and GTA Online as flagship games in this category.
FIFA from Take Two?
Strauss Zelnick also commented on the rumors that have been circulating on the Internet for several months. The CEO of Take-Two didn't explicitly confirm the speculation about the development of a football game under the FIFA license by 2K Sports but highlighted the numerous complications that would be associated with such an undertaking.
Zelnick emphasized above all that the FIFA license doesn't guarantee the acquisition of rights to use players, teams, or even football leagues. This complicates negotiations compared to talks with the NBA, NFL, and many other sports leagues.
In other words, the publisher would have to negotiate contracts with multiple entities, which would be time-consuming and costly. Not to mention that many of them have already signed contracts with Electronic Arts for their "new" series.
Of course, Zelnick is aware of the potential benefits of the official FIFA-licensed game. Nevertheless, he also reminded that Take-Two Interactive already has another football series – the mobile manager Top Eleven, allegedly being "number one" on this market.
