"Gaming is the gold of the future"
Many here in the dear community would disagree and argue with arguments such as: Cyberpunk crash, Ubisoft stock, volatility, increased studio closures, sideways movement of the industry, new game not doing well and stock falling...
But the share $TTWO (+1,17%) This sentence is most applicable to the share, especially because this company has a large cash cow, which will soon be much larger, but will still not burst, at best.
With Rockstar and 2K, Take-Two Interactive owns two of the most important gaming studios in the industry; in fact, Take-Two Interactive generates half of its revenue from mobile gaming.
Today, however, we are only talking about one brand, which is one of the best-known gaming brands.
Grand Theft Auto / GTA
The GTA franchise has sold over 450 million copies. Only Mario, Tetris, Call of Duty and Pokemon have sold more.
Back then, I was still exploring the streets of San Andreas, and even then the game was gigantic and gave me new ways to enjoy games.
Rockstar's new game "GTA 6" has a hype that no other game has had. The name GTA also goes beyond the gaming bubble, even people who don't play games and aren't interested in them know about it.
The hype is real.
Within 24 hours, the trailer had more than 100 million views, which is a record! The news of the GTA trailer has spread like wildfire in the social networks.
See below: GTA 5 trailer 100 million views 12 years ago
GTA 6 trailer 100 million views one day ago
GTA 5 has sold over 200 million copies, which is huge, only Minecraft has sold more as a standalone game.
GTA 4 was released in 2008 and broke a record after just 24 hours, selling 3.6 million copies (excluding PC). 170 million dollars were generated.
Apart from the fact that nobody knows how expensive the normal version of the game will be, I would like to make a prediction as to how many copies will be sold in the first week on Playstation and Xbox (the PC version will be released later).
To be honest, nobody knows whether GTA 6 will be released this year or next year. Although fall 2025 is planned, postponements of games are common, the production costs of GTA 6 amount to over one billion dollars according to insiders!
In comparison, Sony's last big games cost between 150 and 250 million US dollars.
Have you played Spiderman 2 on the PS5? 300 million US dollars, triple A games are getting more and more expensive, they are not always necessarily good, there have been enough examples in the past, but that's another topic.
The Playstation 5 has sold a total of 75 million units by the end of 2024, the XBOX Series 30 million, that's a total of 105, I estimate around 130 million consoles in fall 2025.
Sony in particular will probably offer GTA 6 in a bundle with the PS5, which means GTA 6 will push console sales again.
I think it's a very interesting mind game how often this game will be bought.
To get a comparison let's look at the PS5, the XBOX will make up about "only" 15% of sales. Not a console war (have both consoles, both stocks), but aside from there being less XBOX units, people are waiting until the game comes on Game Pass (Netflix only with games), which is unaffordable even for Microsoft.
There are also increasing rumors that two different versions of the game will be released.
One is the single player (with multiplayer) and the other is multiplayer only, which would also be unique to date.
Personally, I enjoyed the single player and multiplayer, Platinum Trophy on the Playstation... Okay here we go :D
Although the single player was strong, there were enough people who started in multiplayer first, this decision seems logical to me to only offer a multiplayer mode.
Another rumor, the standard version of GTA is supposed to cost around 100 dollars, standard versions of games cost on average 70 dollars when it comes to triple A games.
This is causing an outcry from many gamers on Reddit and X, but Rockstar could offer the game for sale above 100 dollars and it would still sell, as mentioned earlier, the production cost is over a billion dollars!
Take-Two Interactive could easily offer the game for 100 dollars without sacrificing sales, and offering the online version for less would be smart.
But as I said, this information is nothing official. Rumors and leaks are of course enormous and there is a lot of speculation.
Sony specializes in marketing for its blockbuster games:
- Spiderman 2 = 2.5 mil copies sold in 24 hours, that's current record on PS5, only in that time.
- In one week, 5.1 million copies were sold.
- Important! Let's keep in mind that there were about 52 million consoles sold at that time.
- 6 months later there were 11 million copies sold.
Let's consider the following factors:
- Consoles (Playstation 5 and XBOX) = Approximately 130 mil.
- Playstations best game at 52 mil. consoles = in one week / 5.1 mil. games sold
- Actual PC players who don't want to wait and probably buy the Playstation bundle are already included in the 130 million, one can only speculate but I'll just throw in the figure of around 1.5 million worldwide.
- The standard game actually costs 100 dollars, and there is only an online version, which is cheaper.
- The game comes out fall 2025.
In 24 hours, GTA 6 (both versions) sells 20.3 million copies on both consoles.
In one week: 48.7 million copies.
That's my estimate, what do you think? I would actually be interested.
But let's get to the really important thing now, sales figures are nice but the online mode is a very big cash cow.
This cash cow is the biggest you've ever seen, at least in gaming. GTA 5 was already spectacular.
GTA 6 is going to be huge.
In 2016, Rockstar achieved a turnover of half a billion dollars with GTA Online.
Only with the online mode.
In 2022, the sales of the game + online mode amounted to over one billion dollars, and the game has been on the market since 2013.
How to earn $TTWO (+1,17%) money with GTA Online:
In GTA Online, you can surprisingly make the city unsafe with other players in a lobby, you can complete missions together or rob the gas station in the neighborhood. Most of the time, however, everyone fights each other with machine guns, laser guns, jets, tanks.... It depends on the lobby.
Rockstar is always doing events, which means new missions, new items, new cars, new weapons, new clothes, new meth labs and so on.
You can pay for all this with money that you have earned in this world, but you can also buy money with real money.
For example, you can get 5 million dollars in the game for €50, which you can use to buy your ultra-cool helicopter. Maybe you were lucky and this offer was reduced from 50 € to 30 €, or the helicopter was cheaper and on offer for a short time. There are weekly offers, that cool armored car you wanted now costs 3 million dollars instead of 6 million and lo and behold, you can get 10 million dollars for 60 E instead of 100 € today because of Christmas.
And then there's GTA +
GTA + is a subscription that costs €7.99 per month here in Germany.
This gives you discounts, extra money, bonuses and so on
According to forecasts, GTA 6 is expected to generate sales of 3.2 billion dollars in its first year. The company had a total turnover of 5.35 billion dollars last year.
There is currently no information on GTA 6 Online. All rumors.
What I think:
When GTA 5 was released, the online mode was something that was just started on the side, like a side project without a goal. When Rockstar realized that it could turn into a goldmine, they invested more time and money.
In fact, when it was released in 2013, it was just empty, there was almost nothing, just a few missions.
GTA 6 will of course be different, the single-player mode is of course still important, but the greater focus will be on the multiplayer mode, where most of the money is on the streets.
Rockstar will have already thought about how to retain players in the long term, we're talking about expertise that has been acquired over the years. There were certainly new ideas, but they simply couldn't be implemented for technical or strategic reasons. But even if it is exactly the same as its predecessor in terms of possibilities (which I don't think it is), it wouldn't be wrong.
Gamers who quit years ago will jump back into the world of GTA simply because it's new. New gamers who haven't even played GTA 5 Online will start. You could also speculate with numbers here.
What is certain is that it will surpass its predecessor.
Brief data on the share:
Market capitalization: € 35.03 billion
Share price: € 200
P/E RATIO: 75.19
Shares issued: 176 million
No dividend
Debt 2024:
- Total debt: USD 3,534,000 million.
- Cash and cash equivalents: USD 2,112,700 million.
- Net debt: USD 2,328,900 million.
Disclaimer:
The investment recommendations provided on this website do not constitute financial advice and are not tailored to the individual needs of readers. No guarantee is given for the profitability or success of the recommended investments."
Graphics: Image 1 (Marlon XGamer YouTube), Image 2 (MrBossFTW YouTube), Image 3 (Ravy Iyer Streamcharts), Image 4 (Netzwelt), Image 5 (Softonic), Image 6 (Future Viking YouTube), Image 7 (Marketscreener)
Sources:
Play3.de: Sales forecasts
https://www.play3.de/2024/12/30/gta-6-prognosen-prophezeien-rekord-umsatz-fuer-das-erste-jahr-in-milliarden-hoehe/#:~:text=Mit%20%E2%80%9EGTA%206%E2%80%9C%20steht%20eine,Milliarden%20US%2DDollar%20erzielt%20werden.
Play3.de: YouTube record
https://www.play3.de/2023/12/12/gta-6-trailer-bricht-rekorde-youtube-meldet-sich-zu-wort/
Streamcharts / Ravi Iyver: Annual report /GTA Franchise
https://streamscharts.com/news/gta-franchise-fourth-highest-selling-ever
Dailygame: Console sales
https://dailygame.at/ps5-dominiert-weiter-nintendo-switch-naehert-sich-historischem-meilenstein/
Play3.de: Spiderman 2 sales figures
https://www.play3.de/2024/05/30/marvels-spider-man-2-sony-und-insomniac-beeindrucken-mit-neuer-verkaufszahl/
Rockstar: GTA +
https://www.rockstargames.com/de/gta-plus/join
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take-Two_Interactive
Marketscreener:
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/TAKE-TWO-INTERACTIVE-SOFT-11178/
