GTA 5 just hit 230 million copies sold, and it's still moving like a new release

Grand Theft Auto 5 averages more copies sold per year than most megahits manage in their entire lifetime, with a total of 230 million since 2013

I saw the numbers this morning and had to do a double take. 230 million copies of GTA 5 since 2013. That's not a typo. The game's been out for 13 years and it's still pulling numbers that would make most AAA launches jealous.

Think about it. That's an average of almost 18 million copies a year, every year, for over a decade. Most games would kill to sell that many in their entire lifetime, and GTA 5 does it annually like it's nothing. The legs on this thing are absurd.

And it's not just the initial hype. The game keeps finding new audiences. New console generations, the PC version, GTA Online updates, the roleplay boom. Every time you think it's finally slowing down, another quarter goes by and it's still in the top 10. At this point I'm convinced there are people buying it for the first time who weren't even born when it launched.

What gets me is what this means for GTA 6. Rockstar has built this massive, hungry playerbase that's been living in Los Santos for over a decade. When Vice City finally opens up, the pent-up demand is going to be insane. But it also sets the bar impossibly high. GTA 5 didn't just sell well at launch, it became a platform that people keep coming back to. Can GTA 6 replicate that kind of longevity, or was GTA 5 a once-in-a-generation lightning strike?

I'm not sure anything can match those numbers again, but if any game can, it's the one we've all been waiting for since before some of us had gray hair.

What do you think? Is 230 million the ceiling, or does GTA 6 have a shot at blowing past it?

Source: PC Gamer · Curated content.