Grand Theft Auto 5 was officially released yesterday and while the game was expected to break records in terms of sales, it might be well on its way to becoming the most popular game of all time. In its first day of sales, Grand Theft Auto 5 brought in $800 million and is the highest launch-day revenue for any Grand Theft Auto game. Currently, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 holds the record as the entertainment release that was quickest to reach the $1 billion in revenue, which happened within 15 days of launch. While that was two days faster than the 2009 movie Avatar, it’s probably a safe bet that Grand Theft Auto 5 will hit $1 billion within the next few days.
The game is still not released in Japan and Brazil, but is otherwise available worldwide for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Analysts estimate that Grand Theft Auto 5 will bring in around $2 billion in sales, but even that looks like a conservative estimate now. According to Take-Two Interactive, over 8,300 stores in North America held midnight release events for Rockstar Games’ latest title.
If you want to put that into perspective, Grand Theft Auto 5 essentially brought in more revenue on its launch day than the Nintendo Wii U did in a year. Ouch.
