GTAIV Destroys 24-Hour Sales Record In UK

See Full Image

It's the first of many sales reports we're likely to see regarding Grand Theft Auto IV, and we can already sense Take-Two executives beaming with pride (and a bit of relief; come on, admit it, guys).

According to data obtained by the official UK industry monitor ChartTrack, GTAIV has become the single best-selling video game ever in a 24-hour period (source- MCV UK). The numbers are based on EPoS sales data and estimated retail transactions, which shows us that "total online and High Street sales" for the blockbuster hit an astounding 609,000 in one day. What game held the previous UK record? You guessed it: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which sold a little over a half-million units on October 29, 2004. As for the war between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of GTAIV, the latter won...but only be a very small margin: 335,000 - 274,000 (55% - 45%). Incidentally, the 360 version easily topped Halo 3's 2007 record of 266,000.

Now, considering the massive difference in installed userbase between the 360 and PS3, Sony will likely consider these numbers to be a major moral victory. The PS3's previous best one-day seller was the recently released Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which sold a "paltry" 80,000 on its launch day back on March 28. ChartTrack director Dorian Block had this to say to MCV:

"We'll get into the whole week one debate next Tuesday, but it's been a very good 24 hours for both Sony and Microsoft. It's looking very, very promising for Rockstar in terms of full week sales. Even if they don't even sell one more unit, the current figure would still make for an astounding week one performance. Barring a catastrophe, with lorries bringing stock into stores going AWOL, we can only see that sales number going up and up."

Yeah, that pretty much figures. Next up- the US sales figures, which we expect to see any time now.

Related Game(s): Grand Theft Auto IV

4/30/2008 Ben Dutka

Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Subscribe to Ben Dutka on Twitter