The predecessor to the game was released in 2013, and the long wait has built significant market interest. At the electronics retailer Power, traffic was immediately noticeable when pre-orders were activated at 00.00.
On the company's Swedish website, a sales peak was measured at lunchtime on Thursday, with one copy of the game sold every twelve seconds. In Norway, the company reported a sales rate of over 100 games per minute during the initial hours.
Lala Liu, Sales Manager at Power Sweden, notes that the game release is also driving hardware sales. When the game reached its sales peak on Thursday, a parallel increase in the sales of PlayStation 5 consoles was observed.
GTA is a proper cultural phenomenon. When sales explode in the middle of the night on a pre-order, it says everything about how big the gaming market has become. It's a huge relief and joy to finally be up and running," says Lala Liu, noting that the pressure on customer service has been palpable:
Both I and my colleagues in the stores have barely had time to do anything other than answer questions about everything from exact times to technical details.
Higher Price Point and Billion-Dollar Turnover
The pricing for the new game is higher than previous industry standards. The standard edition costs around 80 dollars for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, compared to the benchmark of 70 dollars for other newly released major productions. There is also an extended version with a price tag of around 100 dollars. The current Swedish pre-order price is 869-899 Swedish krona for the standard edition.
According to market research firm DFC Intelligence, the game is expected to sell 40 million copies in the first year. Analysts estimate that pre-orders alone will generate revenue of approximately one billion dollars globally.
Industry Mobilizes
To attract consumers, e-commerce companies are working with various packages and offers.
Elgiganten announces that their pre-order customers will have access to digital bonus content called "The Vintage Vice City Pack". They also offer customers to pick up the game as early as November 12, a week before it can actually be played.
Webhallen also confirms that their pre-order is open and flags that they are planning special events in connection with the official release this fall.
The long wait for the game has also resulted in more unconventional marketing campaigns in the Nordics. The Norwegian e-commerce company Komplett gained attention earlier this year for an offer directly linked to the country's declining birth rate. The company promised a free copy of Grand Theft Auto 6 to parents who have a child on the launch day, November 19. The campaign message simply read: "Have sex today, get GTA 6 free from us in 9 months".