Take-Two Expects Up to $3.5 Billion in Bookings From GTA 6 Launch

Take-Two projects net bookings of $3.35 to $3.5 billion for its current Q3 fiscal 2027 quarter, a period driven by the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6. The publisher says pre-orders keep reaching unprecedented levels, yet the forecast sits slightly below what analysts expected. The previous quarter also missed, and CEO Strauss Zelnick has tied that miss to GTA 6 anticipation.

Net bookings, put plainly, are the total value of completed sales in a period. Take-Two's guidance for the GTA 6 quarter lands just under the $3.51 billion analyst expectation compiled by LSEG Data & Analytics.

A "historic year" ahead

Zelnick framed the launch as the centerpiece of the company's fiscal year. "The launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 is ten days away and, with pre-orders continuing to reach unprecedented levels, we expect to deliver an historic year for our company," he said.

Take-Two has not shared a total for GTA 6 pre-orders. The publisher has said previously that it doesn't want to reveal the figure because "the raw numbers could potentially be misleading," since it has never seen numbers like these before.

For the full 2027 fiscal year, Take-Two expects net bookings of $8 to $8.2 billion.

The previous quarter missed

Take-Two's Q2 2027 net bookings came in at $1.60 billion, below expectations and down 18% year over year. NBA 2K27 was one of the factors. The company described that game's performance this way: "NBA 2K27 had a successful launch and delivered the second highest Net Bookings performance in the history of the series, but it was below our forecast for the period."

Zelnick said he believes anticipation for GTA 6 contributed to the shortfall, with players and their budgets apparently held back for Rockstar's game. He was philosophical about it: "If your lunch is going to be eaten, I'd rather be the one eating it."

What the numbers say

The guidance suggests Take-Two is confident in GTA 6 but is not promising a blowout beyond what Wall Street already modeled. The $3.35 to $3.5 billion range covers a quarter in which the game is on sale for only part of the period, so the full-year range of $8 to $8.2 billion carries much of the weight for how the launch is judged.

Take-Two's decision to keep pre-order figures private means the first hard evidence of the game's reach will come from its next earnings report. Until then, the only data points are the guidance range and Zelnick's descriptions of pre-orders as unprecedented.