During publisher Take-Two's quarterly earnings call, it turns out that GTA 5 only sold around a million copies during the last quarter. That's a remarkable figure for a game that's been around for almost 10 years.

These sales, in relation to the history of this game, are the lowest numbers I have had in the last fiscal quarters. Where it clearly indicates the entry of the title to the beginning of the slowdown, which is the first step towards the end of a successful decade-long era.

Sales of the game during the first quarter of the current fiscal year were nearly 170 million, perhaps 169.9 million. While sales reached over 170 million during the second quarter.

The extent of the sales differences between the two quarters was not disclosed, but according to estimates, the difference is almost 1 million copies, the smallest in the history of the series since its launch.

Possible reasons for the slowdown in GTA 5 sales

One of the possible reasons behind the game's decline in sales is the announcement of GTA 6 earlier this year. A group of fans of the game are preparing to take a break from roaming the city of Los Santos in order to prepare themselves psychologically and mentally for a new adventure in Vice City in Miami.

Of course, this shouldn't be a reason to discourage fans of the game or those who want to play it for the first time. This is because it is likely that the game's sales will return and improve due to the possible long time until the release of GTA 6. And this despite the fact that this probability is quite low.

Add to this that the recent GTA 6 leaks have not shaken the publisher's confidence to move forward with the game's development and not delay it. Where Take-Two's CEO described these leaks as "terribly disappointing", but reiterated that they will not affect the development process or the release date, which seems to be already scheduled in advance.

In any case, sales of the fifth installment of the series and GTA Online reached almost 175 million copies by the second quarter. Total sales of the entire series, which has been released on all devices so far, have reached more than 385 million copies.

Looking at these astronomical numbers for this game reminds me of the well-known economic term “compound interest,” which is interest calculated cumulatively so that its value increases over the years.

Beginning of the end

This slowdown coincides with a notable drop in the quality of content offered by the game's developer, especially seasonal updates such as the Summer Update and Winter Update, which now do not exceed a set of missions and double rewards. There is no doubt about this, especially after the new thank you message appeared on the game's page on Rockstar's website, which already indicates that the end has been reached.

This is also due to Rockstar saving new ideas for the next game that will require continued support during the launch period and beyond, and the company may plan to support the game for at least 10 years, as it did with GTA 5.

All of these indicators are clear evidence that Rockstar is preparing internally for this success to continue uninterrupted at some point, accelerating the release of the next chapter in the series. Although it started with an early step, emphasizing that the game is in development, we expect to see an acceleration in the process of revealing GTA 6 at some point, perhaps towards the end of this year or early next.

Parent company Take Two admitted during its earnings report this week that its profits were modest compared to previous quarters, and this is also reflected in the decline in popularity of cash cow GTA 5, which has been driving growth in profits alongside other publisher titles during the same period, but the company said it still has some great titles coming up in the future that it believes will help boost its returns.

These big titles, including GTA 6, will likely be out by March 2025, so we expect the next installment in the series to launch before that date.