GTA Makes Off With Half a Billion Dollars

And nearly a sixth of all sales were made in the UK.

By Alex Wollenschlaeger

It's a little more than a week since Grand Theft Auto IV arrived to rave reviews (read our full GTA IV review) and non-stop advertising, and for Rockstar and parent company Take-Two it's been a good week.

Grand Theft Auto IV sold 3.6 million copies on launch day, 29 April, Take-Two confirmed on Wednesday. Worldwide the game has sold more than 6 million copies since then, the company said, estimating that it brought in around $500 million.

Take-Two said this gives Grand Theft Auto IV the biggest entertainment launch in history, something the numbers back up. The game brought in nearly 70 per cent more than the $300 million Halo 3 managed during its launch week in September 2007.

Almost a sixth of Grand Theft Auto IV's worldwide sales were made in the UK. Earlier this week, Chart Track, a research firm, confirmed that the game had sold 926,000 copies in the UK between launch day and Saturday, 3 May.

The researcher said this figure puts Grand Theft Auto IV sales above the full year sales of all but three of 2007's most popular games.

Microsoft cited figures from Chart Track saying that the Xbox 360 version outsold the PlayStation 3 version in the UK, with 514,000 copies sold for Microsoft's console versus 413,000 for the PS3. Xbox 360 console sales more than doubled too, up by 125 per cent.

"Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a statement.

For more on the game, visit our Grand Theft Auto IV hub for all of our coverage.