Grand Theft Auto VI is one of the most anticipated video games of 2025, and a market research group believes it is on track to set new sales records. DFC Intelligence, the oldest market analysis firm covering the video game industry, expects Rockstar’s latest game to sell tens of millions of copies in its first 12 months, with total sales reaching over $3 billion.

GTA 6 will enter a market similar to conditions when Rockstar launched GTA V in 2013. For example, Sony and Xbox have sold roughly the same number of PS5 and Xbox Series gave. However, DFC believes that GTA V’s success over the last decade will lead to stronger initial sales when Rockstar finally releases GTA VI.

“GTA V has an 11-year sales history and revenue actually increased in years 7, 8 and 9, reaching around $1 billion in each of years 8 and 9,” DFC founder David Cole told GLHF. “Because of this long-term success, we expect GTA VI to launch faster from the start. Sales should exceed $1 billion before release through pre-orders.”

DFC expects GTA VI to bring in an additional $2.2 billion in revenue in its first year, which ends in November 2026.

Market research firm Circana recently released a batch of sales data that shows the extent of GTA V’s long-term success. While Rockstar’s previous games quickly disappeared from the annual top seller charts upon release, GTA V remained in the top 10 for four years after its initial release. The $1 billion Cole mentioned in GTA V’s eighth and ninth years , reflect a significant rebound in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic before sales fell again in 2023.

In addition to GTA V, Rockstar also released GTA Online, a live-service Grand Theft Auto game that attracted hundreds of thousands of people despite a rocky launch with bugs and missing features – and required a copy of GTA V to play until 2022.

In addition to the increased interest in GTA Online, DFC expects that, as with GTA V, Rockstar will release updated versions of GTA VI as Sony and Microsoft launch new next-generation consoles. The company predicts an increase in sales when this happens, possibly in the game’s third or fourth year, and by the end of the fifth year DFC predicts 100 million copies of GTA VI sold. For comparison: Rockstar sold 200 million copies of GTA V in 11 years.

Rockstar plans to release GTA VI for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sometime in fall 2025. The lack of any updates since December 2023 sparked rumors of a mid-2024 delay, although some Rockstar developers told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that they hadn’t heard of a delay yet.