Grand Theft Auto is still enormously popular.
Despite originally debuting on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 way back in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V’s release on PC is setting a new record. Right now, around 300,000 people are playing GTA V on Steam at the same time, according to the platform’s stat page. That is more than the all-time peak players for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Steam, which hit 287,411 players back in November 2011. This means GTA V has the highest ever peak concurrent players for a non-Valve game on Steam. This is a pretty impressive feat considering this is the third time developer Rockstar has released this entry in the Grand Theft Auto series over the last 17 months.
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#GTAV owners on Steam: 1074894 ± 80049
It's really early number and it doesn't include copies sold outside Steam.
— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) April 14, 2015
For Rockstar, that’s just another million copies sold to add to the pile. In 2013, GTA V was by far the best-selling release of the year. It surpassed more than 30 million copies shipped to retailers before the end of that year. In 2014, after releasing GTA V on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, total sales ballooned to 45 million. This makes it one of the best-selling games of all time. It has also generated more than $2 billion in revenue for Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive.
But the story of Grand Theft Auto V isn’t just about upfront sales. While the game is generating lots of money through its sales, it will continue to make money for months to come through its GTA: Online mode. This multiplayer world features many in-game purchases, and it is the big way that Rockstar plans to continue making income from GTA V while it works on the next entry in the series. Having hundreds of thousands of people playing online is one way to ensure GTA: Online’s economy thrives.