Rockstar makes video games that sell a lot of copies. Recently, it was revealed that Grand Theft Auto V has sold 115 million copies, an insane amount that eclipses the lifetime sales numbers of the PlayStation 4, along with every other console besides the PlayStation 2. It seems like Red Dead Redemption 2 may be on its way to competing with those sales in time. In the same Take-Two earnings report that dropped the GTA V numbers, we learned that Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold 26.5 million copies so far. The game has been out for a little over a year, originally launching on October 26th, 2018 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PC version just launched on November 5th, 2019, which means Red Dead Redemption 2 probably has a whole bunch more sales to get through. And if Rockstar decides to make a next-gen port? That’s going to be a lot of rootin’ tootin’ cowboys.
A major component of Grand Theft Auto V’s ongoing success is the online mode, and the same can be said of Red Dead Redemption 2. It isn’t just that the game is selling well for its single-player story, it’s also that every player is a potential new customer for the living game and ongoing microtransaction revenue. Both games feature robust online offerings that allow players to spend time earning items in-game or grab a premium currency to speed things along. In Red Dead Redemption 2‘s case, this is gold bars, and you can buy them to get special customization options for your cowboy/cowgirl.
So is this going to be another runaway insane selling game like Grand Theft Auto V? Well, the potential certainly is there. In its first year on the market, Grand Theft Auto V sold a whopping 32.5 million copies, before selling between 10 to 15 million every year after. While Red Dead Redemption 2 hasn’t hit that lofty number, it certainly seems like it has the potential to get quite close if it continues to see a long tail of sales for years to come. A next-gen port would certainly help with that, if that’ in the cards for Rockstar. At the very least, it means that a lot of people will get to enjoy what was one of the best games of 2018.
[source: GamesIndustry, Twitter]
