Grand Theft Auto V tops $1B in three days

Urban mayhem video game Grand Theft Auto V has sold $1 billion in its first three days in retail.

That makes this GTA the fastest-selling entertainment property in history. Its sales tallied more than $800 million in its first 24 hours on the market. It has also received critical acclaim, scoring a 98 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic. Not only has it beat a previous record set by the Call of Duty franchise, the sales numbers have also beat previous records of feature films.

“Grand Theft Auto is a cultural phenomenon and Rockstar Games continues to redefine what can be achieved in interactive entertainment,” said Strauss Zelnick, the chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “We are incredibly proud of the extraordinary critical and commercial response to Grand Theft Auto V.”

What’s remarkable is that GTA V has beaten its previous records despite that both its sexual situations and violent scenes — which have drawn a lot of fire in past games — are arguably even more over-the-top in this one.

Last year, Call of Duty: Black Ops II set the previous record by hitting $1 billion in 15 days on the market. And the The Avengers set the record for the fastest-grossing film to cross $1 billion.