Take-Two Calls GTA 6 Pre-Orders Unprecedented and Astonishing, and November 19 Is Not Moving

Take-Two finally told us how GTA 6 pre-orders are going, and the short version is: very, very well. On its August 7 earnings call, the first since pre-orders opened on June 25, CEO Strauss Zelnick said the level of pre-orders is "unprecedented and astonishing," and that consumers are excited about both the standard and deluxe editions. He would not attach a number to it, but the company clearly liked what it saw, because it reiterated a fiscal year outlook of 8.0 to 8.2 billion dollars in net bookings, a range that only makes sense if Grand Theft Auto VI lands on November 19 as planned.

That date got its own quiet confirmation too. The release schedule published with the results still lists GTA 6 for November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and Zelnick's prepared remarks lean on the "excitement around the November 19th launch" as the foundation of the whole year. After weeks of delay chatter, this is about as firm as a publisher gets. The next big beat is already booked as well: the Extended Look premieres August 27, on Netflix first of all places.

Video: Rockstar Games on YouTube

A record quarter that barely includes GTA 6 yet

The numbers themselves are solid rather than spectacular, which makes the pre-order comment more striking. Take-Two booked 1.39 billion dollars in the quarter, slightly above its own guidance but down 3 percent year on year, with NBA 2K, the Grand Theft Auto series and Zynga's mobile games doing most of the work. Here is the detail we keep coming back to: the quarter ended June 30, so it captured only five days of GTA 6 pre-orders. Whatever made Zelnick reach for the word "astonishing" happened in less than a week. GTA Online also keeps humming along, with the Kortz Center Heist update called out as the summer's headline addition.

There was one sour note. Take-Two posted a GAAP net loss of 34.1 million dollars, driven partly by a 43.4 million dollar write-off after it cancelled an unannounced game from a third-party developer. The company did not name the project, and we would not expect it to.

Our take

The rest of the schedule filled in nicely: NBA 2K27 arrives September 4 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Switch 2 and PC, while Judas, the next BioShock, PGA Tour 2K27, WWE 2K27 and Zynga's CSR 3 all remain listed without dates. But the real story is the restraint. Zelnick himself warned that pre-orders this unusual are hard to translate into sales, saying the company does not believe in claiming victory before it occurs. When a CEO is bragging and hedging in the same breath, we read it as genuine confidence with a fear of jinxing it. Fourteen weeks to go.