GTA 5 pulls in $800M in one day, nears record

Grand Theft Auto 5 publisher Take-Two Interactive tallied $800 million in sales on the game's first day of release, the company estimates.

That's the highest launch-day total for any GTA game and any game in Take-Two history, according to internal estimates. Grand Theft Auto 5 launched yesterday, Sept. 17, on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 worldwide, except in Japan and Brazil, where it will be released soon.

Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 currently holds the record as the entertainment release that was the quickest to reach the $1 billion mark — last November, Black Ops 2 grossed $1 billion within 15 days of launch, one day faster than 2011's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and two days faster than the 2009 film Avatar. Black Ops 2 pulled in more than $500 million on its launch day.

"All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to Grand Theft Auto 5. Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry's new standard for creativity, innovation and excellence," said Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take-Two, in a press release today. According to Take-Two, more than 8,300 stores in North America held midnight openings for Grand Theft Auto 5.

The game is available in a $59.99 standard edition, a $79.99 Special Edition and a GameStop-exclusive Collector's Edition for $149.99. Take-Two did not release a figure for the total number of Grand Theft Auto 5 copies that have been sold so far.

You can read and watch our review of Grand Theft Auto 5 here, and take a spoiler-free tour through the game's first six hours in our Today I Played video. For a more in-depth look at the open-world title, read our interviews with creative director Dan Houser about metaphysics and the game's three protagonists and whether the Grand Theft Auto franchise is still relevant.