After 470 Million GTA Sales, How Safe Is Take-Two Really?

According to Twisted Voxel, Take-Two used its latest earnings call to update lifetime sales for several of its biggest franchises, and the scale is hard to miss. The Grand Theft Auto series has now shipped more than 4.7 hundred million units worldwide, with Grand Theft Auto V alone nearing 2.3 hundred million. On the strategy side, Civilization VII had already racked up 1.9 million wishlists before launch and briefly reached No. 4 globally on Steam.

If you read this update like a constructors' table, the front-runner is obvious. Grand Theft Auto V getting close to 2.3 hundred million copies sold more than a decade after release is no longer just a long-tail success story. It is something more durable than that. As the report notes, it remains "one of the best-selling and most profitable entertainment products in history," and that line still carries real weight.

Red Dead Redemption is the other major pillar, even if it moves at a different tempo. The franchise has sold nearly 1.15 hundred million units worldwide, while Red Dead Redemption 2 alone has passed 85 million. It does not match GTA for sheer reach, but within the AAA open-world space, that is still elite territory. For players, the takeaway is simple: Take-Two is not leaning on a single flagship. It has two massive narrative-driven brands doing serious commercial work at the same time.

The sports side looks just as stable. The NBA 2K series has sold nearly 1.73 hundred million copies globally, and Take-Two calls it the best-selling and highest-revenue basketball simulation franchise in the world. Annual sports releases are usually most vulnerable to stale mechanics and audience fatigue, so that kind of sustained performance says a lot. The underlying consumption model for sports games still works, especially when core feel, realism, and social stickiness remain intact.

Two more franchises round out the picture. Borderlands has now passed 100 million units sold worldwide, with Borderlands 2 still the series leader at more than 31 million. That suggests the loot-driven co-op shooter formula still has broad appeal. Meanwhile, the Civilization series has topped 80 million units, a reminder that slower, more systems-heavy strategy games can still deliver over the long term. The more striking data point is Civilization VII reaching 1.9 million wishlists before launch and climbing as high as fourth on Steam globally. Strategy players may not always be the loudest audience, but their buying intent is clearly real.

The most important part of this earnings update is not which single IP sold the hardest. It is that Take-Two's lineup now spans open-world crime, Western storytelling, sports simulation, co-op looter-shooting, and grand strategy at once. This is not a publisher relying on one champion car. It is a full team consistently putting points on the board. For players, that leads to a fairly direct buying recommendation: if you want strong single-player storytelling, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V are still the safest entry points; if you care more about long-term engagement and active communities, NBA 2K and Civilization are the better fit.

Taken together, these numbers show that Take-Two's biggest strength right now is not one breakout hit. It is the combination of legacy franchises that continue to sell and newer releases that can still build strong momentum before launch. For the wider industry, that balance between evergreen back catalog and fresh demand is what real cruising speed looks like.