Xbox says its GTA VI preorder share matches its console market share
Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball says Grand Theft Auto VI preorders are breaking records on Xbox, replying to a Verge report that PS5 dominates. Microsoft has shared no numbers.
Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball said today that Microsoft is "very happy" with Grand Theft Auto VI preorders. He posted the statement on X on September 24 in reply to The Verge's Tom Warren, who reported that preorders lean heavily toward PS5.
Tom, we are very happy with GTA VI pre-orders. The title is breaking records for XBOX, we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of preorders to be matching our share of the console market.
Warren's report, as cited by IGN and GamesRadar+, was mainly about this week's layoffs and studio reorganization at Xbox. In it he wrote that GTA VI preorders are "heavily skewed" toward PS5 over Xbox Series X and S, and that this was "ringing yet more alarm bells" about Xbox as a platform. He gave no percentages or other details on the split. The same report suggested that the Xbox "reset" led by new CEO Asha Sharma could be about making Xbox easier to spin off or run as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Ball's reply reframes the report more than it denies it. If Xbox's share of preorders matches its share of the console market, that share is still the smaller one. Microsoft has not announced a sales figure for Xbox Series X and S in years, while PS5 had sold more than 95 million units as of June 30. IGN notes that analysts have suggested PS5 outsells the whole Xbox Series range by at least 2:1. If that ratio holds, IGN says, there are likely about twice as many GTA VI preorders on PS5 as on Xbox.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella made the same point on Bluesky: "Given what the Xbox share of the console market is, not sure I'd be gushing about anything related to a relative split but that's just me."
GamesRadar+ adds some context: available numbers show PS5 taking up to 80% of a multiplatform game's console preorders. Microsoft says its GTA VI split is better than that, but has not said by how much. None of Ball's claims, the records or the matching share, can be checked, since Microsoft publishes neither preorder figures nor console sales.
IGN also points to Sony's marketing partnership with Rockstar. GTA VI gameplay has been shown on PS5, the console appears in marketing materials, PS5 has a custom GTA VI interface, the PlayStation Blog has covered the game's DualSense speaker and haptic features, and the PlayStation app has a GTA VI-themed logo.
