GTA 6 Is The Most Pre-Ordered Game In PlayStation Store And Microsoft Store History

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Just eight days remain until Grand Theft Auto VI finally arrives – and the game is already shattering records. Sony and Microsoft announced almost simultaneously on November 10 that GTA 6 is the most pre-ordered game of all time in their digital stores. In parallel, PlayStation released a new trailer demonstrating the DualSense controller's capabilities within the game.

How many pre-orders does GTA 6 actually have?

According to the PlayStation Blog, GTA 6 is “the most pre-ordered game in PlayStation Store history.” Importantly, this refers exclusively to the digital store, not all PlayStation sales including discs and physical copies. Xbox followed up on its own blog, calling GTA 6 the “most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store.”

However, no concrete figures have been provided. Neither Sony, Microsoft, nor Rockstar have disclosed the actual number of pre-orders received. Polygon reports estimates circulating around 8 million copies sold. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick speaks of “unprecedented” pre-orders but is unwilling to release raw data, stating it could be “potentially misleading” – more on this in our report on Take-Two's statements regarding pre-orders.

The publisher's forecast offers a clue: Take-Two expects net bookings of US$3.35 billion to US$3.5 billion in the current fiscal quarter, driven by the GTA 6 release. In the previous year's quarter, this figure was US$1.76 billion – roughly a doubling. According to Polygon, the GTA hype is even impacting sales of NBA 2K27, Take-Two's other major fall title.

Preload and launch times on PS5 and Xbox

Due to immense demand, PS5 players can preload the game nine days before release. Sony explicitly advises anyone who wants to play at launch to start the download as early as possible. Those who purchased the physical version with a code can redeem it directly and begin downloading immediately.

PS5: “Rolling Midnight” launch by country – starting November 19 at 12:00 AM New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT), followed by each country as midnight strikes there.
Xbox Series X|S: natively playable, pre-installation is already underway; launching November 19 at 1:00 AM US Eastern Time (ET).
Xbox One: via Xbox Cloud Gaming with Series S graphics settings – streaming to PC is not planned.
Price: US$80 for the standard version.

Regarding performance, Rockstar's confirmation of 30 FPS and raytracing on the PS5 Pro still holds. Sony additionally highlights PSSR upscaling and raytracing-based shadows on the PS5 Pro.

What can the DualSense do in GTA 6?

PlayStation's new features trailer focuses almost entirely on the DualSense controller. According to Sony, GTA 6 utilizes the speakers, haptics, and adaptive triggers consistently throughout the game – all customizable in the accessibility options. The video showcases:

Weapon recoil directly in the adaptive triggers
Perceptible resistance during weightlifting
Controller-wide vibration, for example, when knocked to the ground by an enemy
Police radio chatter from the controller speaker
Tempest 3D Audio for precise sound localization, as well as fast loading times thanks to the SSD

Store records with an asterisk

While the record-breaking announcements sound massive, they should be viewed with some caution. Both platforms are comparing GTA 6 only to pre-orders within their respective digital stores – and digital pre-orders have become increasingly common over the years anyway. A game the world has been waiting for over a decade was almost bound to break this mark. What's more interesting is what lies between the lines: Sony is enabling the preload extra early, apparently anticipating a massive rush on servers on launch day. Our pragmatic advice, therefore: if you want to start playing on November 19, initiate the download now and don't wait until release night. And the DualSense trailer shows that the marketing partnership with Sony isn't just about commercials – while haptic feedback for weapons has appeared in other open-world games like Cyberpunk 2077, its implementation across all game systems here appears significantly more ambitious.