Sensor Tower: GTA 6 Hits 6.08 Million US Digital Preorders, 148% Ahead of Modern Warfare 2

Here’s a number to put on the fridge: 6.08 million. That’s how many times Sensor Tower estimates GTA 6 had been preordered by October 13. Before you frame it, read the fine print. It counts digital preorders in the United States only. Boxed copies and the rest of the world aren’t in it.

GamesIndustry.biz published the analysis on October 20 at 6 a.m. ET, and the comparison is the headline: at the same distance from launch, GTA 6 is 148% ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

What Sensor Tower Says

Per GamesIndustry.biz, all of these are Sensor Tower estimates (Estimate):

• 6.08 million preorders as of October 13, about $594 million in revenue.
• 74% on PlayStation, 26% on Xbox.
• “The vast majority” were for the $100 Ultimate Edition.
• 148% ahead of Modern Warfare 2 at this point before launch.

The rest of the comparison set is Diablo 4, Hogwarts Legacy and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the biggest games of the last few years. GamesIndustry.biz says Modern Warfare 2’s preorders were more than double Diablo 4’s at 45 days out, and that MW2 had Call of Duty’s biggest opening weekend at $800 million. Black Ops 6 later beat it in 2024, though it was also the first Call of Duty on Game Pass at launch.

So GTA 6 isn’t just beating the usual suspects. It’s lapping the one that used to lap everyone else.

Read the Fine Print

Three limits matter, and GamesIndustry.biz flags the big one itself: “this analysis does not cover boxed releases: Sensor Tower’s comparison data only covers digital preorders in the United States.”

• It’s an estimate. Sensor Tower models store data. Neither Sony, Microsoft, Rockstar nor Take-Two confirmed these numbers.
• It’s the US. Europe, Asia and everywhere else aren’t counted.
• It’s digital. Retail preorders aren’t in it.

The real total is probably larger. But “probably” is doing work there, and we won’t put a number on it.

Where This Leaves Our Earlier Story

On October 14 we covered a roundup that said GTA 6 had passed 6 million preorders. We marked it unconfirmed, because we couldn’t see the source. Now there is one, from a major trade outlet, and it comes with the limits above. The figure holds up as an estimate. It isn’t a worldwide count.

What Analysts Expect Next

GamesIndustry.biz says it asked analysts earlier this year how many copies GTA 6 would sell in its first year. Their answers ranged from 30 million to more than 50 million (Estimate). The next official number, if Take-Two gives one, will come from its earnings report.

What We Don’t Know

• Worldwide preorders, digital or boxed (Not confirmed).
• Any preorder figure from Take-Two or Rockstar. None has been published.
• Sensor Tower’s own figures page. The tracker loads its numbers in the browser, and we couldn’t read them, so everything here is as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.

Six million US tickets to Vice City, by one estimate, and most of them first class.

More: GTA 6 preorder numbers, pre-order guide, our October 14 roundup and Take-Two’s November earnings.

Sources: GamesIndustry.biz, Sensor Tower GTA VI tracker.

Official Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 1, Rockstar Games.