Grand Theft Auto 6 is now the most pre-ordered game in the history of both the PlayStation Store and the Microsoft Store, according to Sony and Microsoft. Both companies said demand for Rockstar’s next game is unprecedented ahead of its November 19 release.
Sony made the first announcement on the PlayStation Blog, saying GTA 6 had set a new record on its digital storefront. Microsoft then said the game had become the most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store. Neither company gave a sales total, and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has already said he will not provide raw numbers because, in his view, they could be misleading.
The announcement adds another public marker to a launch that Take-Two has already described in unusually strong terms. Zelnick has said preorder numbers are “unprecedented,” and at the company’s latest quarterly report he said the launch is ten days away and that Take-Two expects to deliver “an historic year” because pre-orders are still climbing.
Take-Two’s financial outlook gives a sense of the scale the publisher expects from GTA 6. The company is projecting net bookings of $3.35 billion to $3.5 billion for its current fiscal quarter, driven by the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19. That would be close to double the $1.76 billion it reported in the same quarter a year earlier.
Sony opens preloads nine days early
Sony said the preorder milestone led it to let players preload the game earlier than usual. According to the company, players can start downloading GTA 6 nine days before launch so they are ready to play on day one. Sony also said it is using a rolling midnight launch by country, beginning at 12:00AM NZDT in New Zealand and then opening the game across the globe as each region reaches midnight on November 19.
The PlayStation Blog was direct about the record: “Grand Theft Auto 6 is now the most pre-ordered game in the history of PlayStation Store.” Sony said it had joined with Rockstar Games to allow players to start pre-loading early because of the level of demand. It also urged players who want to play on launch day to preload as soon as possible.
Sony’s announcement also pointed to PlayStation-specific features for GTA 6 on PS5 and PS5 Pro, although the material supplied here did not spell those out. What is clear is that Sony is treating the launch as a major event for its platform, with preloads live well ahead of release and midnight availability staggered by region.
Microsoft says the same on Xbox
Microsoft issued a similar statement on its own site, calling GTA 6 “the most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store.” The company also told players to preload as soon as possible because of “the unprecedented demand” around the game.
On Xbox Series X/S, GTA 6 will be playable at launch. Microsoft also said the game will be available on Xbox One through Xbox Cloud Gaming. That cloud service is also available on PC, but Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Bell confirmed in October that GTA 6 will not be streamable on PC through that service.
The Microsoft wording matters because it puts the game at the top of another storefront record, not just Sony’s. Taken together, the two announcements show that preorder interest is not limited to one platform or one audience. Rockstar’s next game is already setting records before it reaches players, and those records are being claimed separately by both console ecosystems.
Xbox’s announcement also fits with the broader launch plan around the game. Players on the company’s consoles will be able to preload before release, while cloud support extends the title to Xbox One owners who do not have a current-generation machine. The one limit Microsoft confirmed is on PC streaming, where the game will not be available through Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Take-Two projects a huge quarter
While the preorder totals remain undisclosed, Take-Two has offered a financial estimate that points to the size of the launch. The company expects net bookings of $3.35 billion to $3.5 billion in the current fiscal quarter, and it tied that forecast directly to the “groundbreaking release” of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19.
Zelnick repeated that message during the earnings report. “The launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 is ten days away and, with pre-orders continuing to reach unprecedented levels, we expect to deliver an historic year for our company,” he said.
Take-Two also projected a large jump for the full fiscal year. The company reported total net bookings of $6.72 billion for its 2026 fiscal year and is currently forecasting $8 billion to $8.2 billion for 2027. That expected rise shows how heavily the publisher is leaning on Rockstar’s next release to drive results in the coming year.
The company has kept the preorder numbers itself, and Zelnick has said he will not provide exact figures because the raw numbers could be misleading. Even so, the storefront records from Sony and Microsoft are the clearest public sign yet of how strong the response has been. Before the game has even launched, both major console stores are describing GTA 6 as the most pre-ordered title they have ever seen.
GTA 6 is due on November 19, with release timing set by region and New Zealand first in line at midnight local time. Sony says preloads are already available nine days early, while Microsoft says Xbox users should preload as soon as possible. On Xbox, cloud streaming support will extend the game to Xbox One, but not to PC. Those details now sit beside the larger headline: Rockstar’s next Grand Theft Auto has already rewritten preorder records on both PlayStation and Xbox storefronts.
GAMER2GO has also reported on earlier GTA 6 coverage, including Sony raising its PlayStation forecast as the game neared launch in our report on Sony’s forecast.
Preload nine days early is wild, but it makes sense if they’re expecting the servers to get hammered. Rockstar knows people are gonna slam that launch button the second it flips.
or it just hides the bottleneck until launch day
most preordered ever with no numbers lol
numbers don’t matter if the demand is that high
i get what you’re saying, but storefront records still mean something. if both sony and microsoft are calling it their biggest preorder ever, that’s not nothing.
nine days early is a gift
yeah because half the playerbase will still forget and then complain at midnight when the download isn’t done. preload culture is carrying the launch rn.
better than everyone crashing the store page on launch day i guess. rolling midnight by region is smart too, nz always gets the weird early start
nine days early sounds a bit mad, is that preload for everyone or just digital preorders?
looks like digital preorder preload, not a mystery bonus for everybody. the wording says players can start downloading nine days before launch, so i’m reading that as anyone who bought digitally on the store. with a game this huge, i’d rather have the client sitting there ready than risk a 100gb scramble on release day. if they really are doing a rolling midnight too, that should take some pressure off the first wave.
cloud on xbox one is the real bit
on xbox one really? no stream delay?
same i had to use cloud for a bit on my old setup and it was fine for just messing around. not ideal for gta maybe, but better than waiting forever to upgrade
cloud is cool until the input lag shows up in a chase or shootout. for gta that can get annoying fast.
no sales total feels very rockstar somehow
they don’t need to post numbers when the stores are basically waving flags for them
fair, but it’s still funny watching everyone argue over a record with no scoreboard. rockstar can just let sony and microsoft do the bragging for them.
like a trailer for the trailer
pretty much. the hype machine is doing laps before the game even lands, and somehow people are still eating it up