Why GTA VI is Going to Shatter the Gaming Industry
- Pranav Soni
- May 21, 2025
- 6 min read
Why GTA VI Is Going to Be the Biggest Game to Date
The Grand Theft Auto franchise has ended up becoming a global cultural icon. What started as a Race ‘n’ Chase game has ended up becoming a franchise behemoth. When the third installment, GTA III, launched in 2001, it changed the industry forever.
GTA has influenced not only the gaming industry but also mainstream pop culture. From a provocative, over-the-top, action-filled, satirical, immersive story to its vast open world.
From cruising around the streets of different cities to participating in heists. From gang wars to even drug deals, players could cause absolute mayhem in the city if they wanted to. Rockstar Games provided a sandbox with freedom unlike what we got be
The last game, GTA V, has sold over a whopping 210 million copies since 2013. It has made Rockstar Games and Take-Two over $8.5 BILLION worldwide.
GTA VI’s latest trailer 2 has garnered a colossal 475 million views across all platforms in a day. It has made this trailer the largest video launch in history, according to Rockstar. There’s no point in denying that GTA VI is going to break all the previous records set by GTA V.
GTA III ended up establishing a new standard, a new trend for the industry, and the open-world game genre. And now, 25 years later, GTA VI is on its way to set new trends.
If you don’t believe me, GTA V’s budget was around $265 million. It sold over 10 to 12 million copies in the first 24 hours. That’s approximately $800 million on their first day itself.
If you’re still skeptical, Red Dead Redemption 2’s budget was near $370 to $540 million. It had the second biggest launch in the history of entertainment and broke many records.
It made $725 million in sales in the first week alone. Exceeding the lifetime sales of its prequel, Red Dead Redemption.
Red Dead Redemption 2 made $725 million in the first week alone. It has sold over 74 million copies to date as of May 2026. It has sold over 4 million copies since February 2025
It will end up becoming a measuring stick once again for everyone else. And it will be a game that will inspire other studios to push themselves to their limits.
The second trailer has increased the hype for this game even more. As soon as the trailer was dropped, fans began to look for hidden clues and easter eggs.
The fans worldwide are clamoring to get their hands on GTA VI. They’re licking their lips and rubbing their hands together after watching trailer 2.
May 26, 2026, couldn’t come any sooner, but not everyone’s ecstatic. The gaming industry as a whole is very, very nervous about it.
But why is that, you may wonder? Let me explain further why the industry is quaking in its boots.
GTA VI's Release Has the Gaming Industry Shaking
The main reason why the big publishers and studios aren’t very ecstatic is that they’re afraid. They’re afraid because when GTA VI comes out, no one is going to pay any attention to their game.
Now, if you are running a studio, what would your priority be? What is something that game companies want the most? They want your attention, your eyeballs to remain on their games.
This is even more important for studios that make games like Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Fortnite, etc. Because they need a live player count to make money.
Now, if a game like GTA VI is going to take playtime from all of these games. It's not going to be like no one is playing these games, no, but a good chunk is going to play GTA VI over other games.
It wouldn’t matter how good your game is going to be, it won’t matter if your graphics or your story are brilliant.
No one is going to care when one of the most anticipated games in history is about to launch. GTA VI is one of the most anticipated games in history.
When GTA VI comes out, it is going to eclipse every other game. It is going to dominate the gaming industry for years to come. It is going to be one of the games that everyone’s going to talk about.
From average player to content creator, everyone is going to hop on the GTA VI hype train. And this is exactly what the industry is afraid of.
This is exactly why everyone’s afraid of releasing their games or updates near GTA VI’s launch. Some devs are planning to delay major updates on their live service games.
Let me explain it further: Christopher Dring is an industry insider. He runs his podcast/newsletter called The Game Business. He spoke to many executives who remained anonymous.
An anonymous boss of a big publisher said, "We don't want to be anywhere near. We are working on multiple different plans for our titles."
Another senior executive added that, "Even without GTA. It's immensely difficult to find free time for new games to shine. Time is real scarcity for us, not money. It's tough out there."
"Some things happening in the year that may cause us to think differently about our launch timing.” Admitted by EA Boss Andrew Wilson.
Even EA is going to push back its major Battlefield relaunch because of GTA VI's launch. No one wants to launch their games before or after GTA VI launches.
One boss even went on comparing the launch of GTA VI with a huge meteor, saying, "We will just stay clear of the blast zone."
The Game Business spoke to many companies, and they're preparing for multiple eventualities. "If we move out to 2025, what if Rockstar does, too?" asked a European boss. "Will we have to push our game up? Or will we have to delay further? It's stressful."
So now I hope you understand why the industry is so afraid of GTA VI. It's going to be the game that dominates the industry for years to come.
It will be THE game that everyone will be talking about. And it will take eyeballs away from the other games.
The Business Fallout of GTA VI
What do the gaming companies actually want?
Publishers and studios are laser-focused on player behavior, engagement, and revenue streams. Here’s a breakdown of it and how it matters the most to them:
Player Retention & Engagement:
Average Session Length: How long do you stay logged in per session? How long do you play a game in one sitting?
Daily Active User (DAU) and Monthly Active User (MAU): As the title itself suggests, who is logged in, who is returning, and how often?
Stickiness Ratio (DAU ÷ MAU): This tells the studio exactly how “addictive” their games are.
Monetization Metrics:
Average Revenue Per User: How much money, on average, are the players willing to spend? It tells the publishers how much they’re willing to open their wallets.
Conversion Rates: How many players are becoming paying players? What % of players are actually spending money?
Lifetime Value (LTV): It tells the studio how much they can expect to earn from a player before they stop playing.
These are the lifeblood of every live-service game, especially those free-to-play games. Even the ones with a heavy emphasis on microtransactions.
Once GTA VI drops, you can be sure as hell to expect a massive drop in player count. It will happen across the entire; it doesn’t matter what, they will bleed—at least temporarily.
Here’s what’s likely to happen across the business side of the gaming industry:
Daily user count will plummet across all the other titles.
Viewers would shift massively towards GTA VI across all platforms. And it's going to be like that for a long time.
Indie and small titles will drown completely.
AAA Studios and Publishers will delay their major updates or shift their games to a later date.
Budgets would be relocated—no one wants to spend millions promoting their game in the shadow of Rockstar.
Now I will move on to the real cash cow that Rockstar is going to milk for maybe the next 10 years.
This is a personal opinion of mine, but what should scare the industry is GTA Online 2.0 or GTA Online 2. Whatever Rockstar Games decides to call it.
Unless you live under a rock or don’t like GTA Online like me. GTA Online has something for everyone: racing, thrilling heists, and PVP battles.
Players could even purchase their nightclub, sell counterfeit cash, smuggle drugs, or traffic arms trafficking. You can do so much on GTA Online.
It is going to dominate the industry for years as its predecessor did. I would honestly like single-player DLC, but knowing Rockstar Games, they won’t.
Anyway, there isn't much information on GTA Online 2, and all we can do is wait. But one thing I think is certain is that we can expect almost all the businesses from GTA Online to GTA Online 2.
By the time GTA VI rolls out on May 26th, 2026, it will cause a huge earthquake in the entire industry. This isn’t just another game; it’s a cultural event.
The competition will be very, very tough out there; players’ expectations will only increase. Only studios that would end up surviving this nuke are those that can adapt.
