THE CRUNCH
Grand Theft Auto 6 is now the most pre-ordered game in the history of PlayStation Store, Sony has announced, and Xbox says it holds the equivalent record on the Microsoft Store. To cope with the demand, Rockstar's game can be pre-loaded nine days early, so it is ready to play the moment it unlocks on 19 November.
The launch follows a rolling midnight schedule by country, starting at 12:00am NZDT in New Zealand and moving westward as each region hits midnight. Sony is urging anyone hoping to play on day one to pre-load as soon as possible.
There are platform wrinkles worth knowing. Sony highlights features exclusive to GTA 6 on PS5 and PS5 Pro, while Xbox says the game will be playable on Xbox One consoles through Xbox Cloud Gaming. That streaming service does work on PC, but Xbox has confirmed GTA 6 will not be streamable there.
Take-Two has declined to give actual pre-order figures, with CEO Strauss Zelnick saying the raw numbers could be misleading, though he calls demand unprecedented and expects an "historic year". The publisher is projecting net bookings of $3.35 to $3.5 billion for the current quarter, roughly double the $1.76 billion it reported in the same quarter last year, driven by the GTA 6 launch.