Take-Two Interactive doesn't usually sound surprised by its own business. On Friday, it did.
Speaking on the company's Q1 Fiscal Year 2027 earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick described early Grand Theft Auto VI pre-order activity as "unprecedented and astonishing," a phrase he doesn't reach for lightly. GTA 6 pre-orders were only live for five days during the reporting quarter, which ran from April through June, yet Zelnick said the response was strong enough to catch even his own team off guard.
"I can say that the level of preorders is unprecedented and astonishing, and we're very grateful for that," Zelnick told analysts. "But they are so unprecedented that we just don't know how it'll translate into sales... We genuinely don't, and we just don't believe in claiming victory before it occurs."
Take-Two didn't hand over hard numbers. No units sold, no pre-order revenue breakdown by title — the company has stayed tight-lipped on specifics, even as outside estimates swirl. Analytics firm Newzoo pegged the first five days of digital pre-order spending at roughly $260 million globally, which it called a record opening pre-order week for any game in its dataset. Other estimates have floated even higher, though none of that is confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two.
What the company did confirm: total net bookings for the quarter hit $1.39 billion, and quarterly revenue landed at $1.39 billion as well — above the $1.32-$1.37 billion range Take-Two had guided investors to expect. Zelnick attributed the beat primarily to stronger-than-expected performance from the NBA 2K and GTA franchises, with NBA 2K net bookings up 7% and GTA up 3% year-over-year.
Recurrent consumer spending — Take-Two's term for the ongoing revenue that flows in from GTA Online, NBA 2K microtransactions, mobile purchases, and similar sources between big releases — held up well too, dipping just 1% year-over-year and making up 84% of the quarter's net bookings. Mobile was the one soft spot, down 7% year-over-year, though Zelnick chalked that up to a tough comparison against last year's Color Block Jam launch rather than any deeper problem.
On pricing, Zelnick pushed back on any notion that GTA 6's standard and deluxe editions were priced wrong. "I think that Rockstar got it right in terms of the pricing of this standard edition and the pricing of the deluxe edition, and I think there's no doubt that consumers are really excited about both," he said, adding that the mix between the two tiers has been encouraging.
The strong start led Take-Two to raise its full-year guidance. The company now expects fiscal 2027 net bookings to land a few hundred million dollars above its earlier $8 billion target, with GTA 6 doing most of the heavy lifting. For context, that full-year number implies GTA 6 alone will need to generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.3 to $1.5 billion in net bookings in the weeks following its November 19 launch — a target that, based on Friday's commentary, Take-Two now sounds confident it can clear.
Zelnick also touched on marketing plans ahead of launch, teasing more surprises to come. "Rockstar is known for trying new things and innovating, and I am hopeful you will see more innovations," he said, pointing to Thursday's news that a Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look will premiere on Netflix on August 27 at 3 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. BST — an unusual venue for a Rockstar reveal, and a sign the studio is willing to break from its usual playbook as launch day approaches.
GTA 6 is still set to release November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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