Grand Theft Auto V Crosses $1 Billion in Sales in Three Days

Following on the heels of a record-shattering $800 million opening day, Grand Theft Auto V cruised to more than $1 billion in worldwide retail sales in just three days. It took the previous record-holder, Call Of Duty: Black Ops II, 15 days to generate that much after its November 2012 release. Of course, much like ticket price inflation in the movie industry, the soaring cost of video games can make these numbers somewhat misleading; there's no denying the popularity of the Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty franchises, but earlier installments in those series retailed for around $50 (as opposed to a $79 MSRP for this new game) and didn't commonly have feature-enhanced special editions that can cost upwards of $100. The modern gaming economy is built around two separate types of games: expensive, sprawling games--mostly action and war--that cost more than $50 and offer an immersive experience. The biggest of these, generally, will sell around 5-7 million copies with some occasionally going as high as 10-12 million. Nintendo is the outlier, since their consoles typically come pre-packaged with games that will then move tens of millions of units almost by default. Less expensive, elaborate and immersive games are also available, generally for much lower costs and especially for free or cheap on mobile platforms, which will move tens of millions of copies due to the low entrance cost.