GTA IV Hijacks Sales Records, Too

Have you bought the latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise yet? If not, you’re probably in the minority – according to the game’s record-smashing sales, everyone and his mother went out to buy the game in its first week. The game made $310 million in its initial twenty-four hours, easily trumping the previous entertainment sales record set by Master Chief himself (a measly $170 million). It went on to gross $500 million that first week.

Microsoft has been quick to chime in, claiming on their Gamerscore Blog that 60% of all copies sold were for the Xbox 360.

So what do all these numbers mean for gamers? Staggering figures like these are a great way to measure just how far the gaming industry has come. Sure, the industry has been going strong for well over two decades (there was a bit of a rough patch back there in ‘83, but we don’t like to talk about that); but now big-name game launches like GTA IV’s generate sales numbers that put even the highest-grossing Hollywood films to shame. And Hollywood is taking note – movie execs were worried that Iron Man’s fate would be decided, at least in part, by how well GTA IV performed (in this case their fears were unwarranted, Iron Man did just fine).

Surprisingly, the meteoric sales charts have done little to boost the asking price for stock in Take Two Interactive. Industry experts attribute this to the stock’s artificially inflated price following EA’s semi-hostile bid earlier this year.

In any event, Niko Bellic and company can rest easy for a bit, no one’s going to be stealing their sales records back for a long time. Perhaps the best news for gamers is that their long wait has not been in vain – the game has been unanimously praised in all major gaming outlets (of course, not counting whatever Yahtzee decides to say about it).