GTA 4 sells 6 million copies in first week – Will PS3, Xbox 360 sales spike?

We always knew Grand Theft Auto IV was going to sell well, but the unit sales, and dollar worth of those sales in the first week after release, which has now been officially revealed, is still shockingly high.

Take-Two, the publisher of GTA 4 announced today that the game had sole approximately 6 million copies in its first week on sale. 3.6 million of those sales were on the first day. This equates to a worldwide sales value of $310 million on day one, and over $500 million after one week, which is a new all-time sales record for any form of entertainment.

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two gloated:

“We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player’s experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well.”

“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.”

“We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level.”

These sales exceed the estimates made by most analysts before the game was released. At that time, it was suggested that the game would sell roughly five million copies in its first two weeks on sale.

With success like this, it’s really no wonder Electronic Arts are after the company so badly. They have launched a $2 billion hostile takeover bid against the company in recent times, although that figure now may have to be upped after GTA 4 helped boost Take-Two’s share price.

So we know Grand Theft Auto is an incredible success, both in terms of sales, and a piece of entertainment (those 10/10 and 100% scores being testament to that), but the question remains over what this will do for console sales.

April and May sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 will surely be boosted significantly by the game’s release, but whether it’s enough for either to catch up and overtake the Wii has yet to be seen. The Wii has Wii Fit to counter with, and while that piece of software may be derided by the more hardcore amongst you, it could help Nintendo fight Microsoft and Sony off for even longer.

• GTA IV expected to rake in $400 million opening weekend between Xbox 360, PS3
• GTA IV for PS3 and Xbox 360 to sell 9 million copies at launch
• PS3 sells 2 million in Japan – Nintendo DS and Wii still dominating
• Wii Sells 5 Million in Japan, outselling the SNES and GameCube
• Week in Gaming: PS3 Eight Days looks promising and DS GTA: Chinatown Wars revealed