GTA VI Delay Reportedly to Cost Gaming Industry $2.7 Billion in 2025

The recent delay of GTA VI will cost the video game industry $2.7 billion in 2025, according to estimates from Ampere Analysis presented by The Hollywood Reporter.

At the same time, the overall spending on games content and services is still expected to cross the mark of $200 billion for the first time ever, due to the upcoming June 5, 2025, release of the Nintendo Switch 2.

For 2025, Ampere Analysis forecasts about 1 percent video industry growth, from $199.4 billion in 2024 to $201.3 billion. These numbers are down from 2024’s 3.5 percent growth and less than half of Ampere’s 2026 prediction, which is 2.2 percent.

Because of the postponement, GTA VI sales will be recognized by the global gaming industry in the calendar year 2026 and by Take-Two Interactive in its fiscal year 2027.

Piers Harding-Rolls, research director of games at Ampere Analysis, predicts that the industry will focus on cutting costs before it can significantly increase revenue, “With no transformative technology, monetization model or distribution play on the horizon to catapult the market forward, games companies are looking for pockets of growth to exploit and to build content more efficiently and at lower cost.”

According to the latest official statement from the Rockstar, GTA VI is slated for release on May 26, 2026. Notably, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, recently stated that it is unlikely the game will be delayed again and justified the postponement by saying Rockstar is aiming for perfection in developing the new GTA.

Coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, the sixth numbered installment in the Grand Theft Auto series has sparked great interest from players. As of the time of writing, the game’s first trailer has reached milestones of 260 million views, over 12 million likes, and more than 1 million comments.

According to the recent financial report from Take-Two, the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise has sold nearly 450 million units, with 215 million of them accounted for by the second best-selling video game in the world, GTA V. Notably, in 2024, the predecessor of GTA VI remained the most-watched game on Twitch, with over 1.4 billion hours of broadcast time. On top of that, GTA V has won 15 different industry awards across multiple categories and has been re-released multiple times since its original launch in 2013.

Broadly, the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series owes its success to GTA Online, which comes free with every copy of GTA V but also features a standalone version since March 15, 2022.

As of the time of writing, the Grand Theft Auto V Legacy and Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced editions featured all-time peaks of 364,548 and 187,059 concurrent Steam players, respectively.