GTA IV Shatters Records As Expected

With $500 million in first-week sales, GTA IV has trampled every previous record in games, movies, and music, on the dollar level.

Media outlets have speculated about Grand Theft Auto IV’s spectacular first-week performance since before it even occurred, but Take-Two finally took the lid off its own data on Wednesday to reveal hard numbers. The results: GTA IV demolished not just video game but entertainment records for day one and week one sales by dollar value.

Take-Two claims it sold 3.6 million copies of the game within just one day, or roughly 41 games sold every second for 24 hours. That comes out to about $310 million in sales in one day, a monolithic number unsurpassed by any other entertainment medium. By contrast, Halo 3, the last must-have game to set records, chalked up $170 million in first-day sales, and the current opening-day king of movies, Spider-Man 3, brought in only $59.8 million on its opening day.

By the end of the week, GTA IV had sold approximately 6 million copies, representing $500 million in sales. Compared to movies, that would put it, in one week, above the total worldwide gross of blockbuster films like Shrek, Saving Private Ryan, and Home Alone.

Not surprisingly, company suits are pleased. “We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player’s experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, in a statement. “Grand Theft Auto IV’s first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date.”