GTA 6 is the Only Game That Can Dethrone Call of Duty

It’s looking like GTA 6 could be the only game to knock Call of Duty off the top of the sales charts. For years, Call of Duty has dominated the industry. Despite a lot of negativity about the franchise every single year, it manages to rope in millions of copies sold without fail. Of course, they run a pretty good marketing campaign. Not only do people know Call of Duty will be out every fall, but it’s promoted across major drink brands, snacks, and during major televised events to get as many eyes on it as possible. There aren’t many things bigger than Call of Duty… except Grand Theft Auto.

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Despite 2026 still being a few months away, the best selling game of next year has felt like a lock since May when GTA 6 marked its official release date. Provided the game doesn’t get delayed to 2027 (which seems highly unlikely), Rockstar is going to absolutely demolish any competition next year and here’s why.

Only 3 Games Have Beaten Call of Duty as the Highest-Selling Game Since 2009

Call of Duty is a sales juggernaut. It is the fast-food equivalent of video games and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. It’s consistent, reliable, and you know what you are getting every single time. The quality isn’t always as high as some other games in the industry, but it does scratch a healthy itch. As a result, its reliability has made it a near-undefeatable game on the sales charts, emphasis on “near”. Only three games have managed to top Call of Duty in sales since the franchise really began to soar with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009.

Two of those games are Rockstar titles (Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2) while the other one was Hogwarts Legacy, which released on just about every modern platform and is part of one of the biggest IP out there. History has proven that a new Rockstar game, especially a Grand Theft Auto game, steals attention from just about everything else. Grand Theft Auto VI will be no exception, especially since it will have a major lead thanks to the fact it’s releasing in May and Call of Duty typically drops in October or November.

Will GTA 6 Defeat Call of Duty in 2026?

I can’t imagine there are too many people thinking anything releasing in 2026 will be bigger than GTA 6. Publishers haven’t been shy about suggesting they are trying to stay out of Rockstar’s way because they know it’s a storm they can’t compete with. For as successful as Call of Duty is, there are a lot of people who don’t really anticipate a new entry because it’s a given every year. Grand Theft Auto is the exact opposite, however. New GTA games only come about every so often and in this case, it has been 12 years since the last one.

Of course, GTA 5 has kept fans well fed for the last decade, but the amount of money, time, and effort being invested into GTA 6 is going to blow everything else out of the water. It’s going to be a massive cultural event that dominates the talk of not just this industry, but mainstream news cycles. Grand Theft Auto always makes headlines both for its successes, but also its various controversies and as the saying goes, all publicity is good publicity. In the case of Grand Theft Auto, its provocative nature is a huge selling point and the news blasting that will only help the game.

Not only that, but Grand Theft Auto is so much bigger than anything else out there. As of last year, Call of Duty had sold 500 million copies across the entire franchise. GTA 5 alone has sold over 215 million copies as of August 2025, nearly half of what the entire Call of Duty franchise has sold. Despite being a 12 year old game, GTA 5 continues to sell about 5 million copies every 3 months.

Finally, GTA 6‘s second trailer holds the record for the most-watched trailer within a 24 hour period and biggest video launch of all-time. This isn’t just a record for a video game trailer, it’s any trailer. Rockstar stole the record from Marvel for Deadpool and Wolverine, which shows just how much hype is building toward this game.

The Xbox Factor Hurting Call of Duty’s Chances

The one other thing that is limiting Call of Duty’s odds next year is the fact it is a first-party franchise for Xbox. For those that don’t know, Microsoft purchased Call of Duty publisher Activision for nearly $70 billion and that means Xbox has final say over everything to do with Call of Duty. Xbox puts all of its first-party games on Xbox Game Pass on day one at no extra charge and a large amount of Xbox players take advantage of this. This isn’t just limited to console players either as Game Pass exists on PC as well, allowing users to play Call of Duty without buying the game.

That means there’s no actual sale for all of these copies of Call of Duty, as they’re more or less being loaned out to the player until their Game Pass subscription lapses. This gives Call of Duty a lot less momentum in the sales charts, allowing GTA 6 to completely overtake it next year.