GTA 6 Ultimate Edition Claims 89% of Pre-Orders, Sensor Tower Data Shows - GamesReviews.com
Nearly nine in ten Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders are going towards the $99.99 Ultimate Edition rather than the $79.99 standard release, according to fresh data from mobile and games analytics firm Sensor Tower. Shacknews reported that a staggering 89 percent of pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 have been for its $100 Ultimate Edition, a split that Sensor Tower’s own analyst says has no real precedent in the industry.
Broken down by platform, the premium tilt is slightly more pronounced on Xbox than on PlayStation. Beebom, citing the same Sensor Tower figures, reported that 88.5% and 90% of buyers have opted for the Ultimate Edition on PlayStation and Xbox, respectively. Both editions bundle the nostalgia-driven Vintage Vice City pack, so the gap comes down purely to what buyers get for the extra $20.
The comments came from Karl Kontus, the general manager of Video Game Insights at Sensor Tower, who spoke to trade outlet GamesIndustry.biz. Kontus framed the number against years of tracking special-edition sales across the industry: “A 50% premium share during preorders is a great number. Typical premium shares for games tend to be around 10-20%.” He then added the line that has driven the wider coverage: “That being said, I have never seen a 90% premium share before.”
The Sensor Tower figures line up with separate comments from Take-Two Interactive chief executive Strauss Zelnick, who addressed the pre-order mix in a CNBC interview days earlier. Zelnick told the network “it’s skewing more to the premium edition, but that might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones that are pre-ordering now.” He stopped short of predicting the split would hold, cautioning that today’s buyers are self-selected super-fans rather than a representative slice of the eventual audience.
Zelnick has also been careful not to over-promise on the strength of pre-orders more broadly. On Take-Two’s most recent earnings call, per GameSpot’s reporting on the same Sensor Tower briefing, Kontus separately estimated total GTA 6 pre-orders could reach roughly 25 million units by launch, which would amount to “unprecedented preorder performance” and translate into around $2 billion in advance revenue.
Unlike some premium game tiers that pad out a box with cosmetic filler, GTA 6’s $100 edition carries content Rockstar has kept locked away from standard buyers, including extra vehicles, weapons and a handful of exclusive in-game stores. Kontus told GamesIndustry.biz, as relayed by GameSpot, that “sometimes the premium SKUs are just filler content to justify a higher price, but the GTA 6 premium SKU comes with a meaningful amount of vehicles, weapons, and even a custom mod shop that you wouldn’t get otherwise.” He went further, suggesting Rockstar left money on the table by not pushing even higher: “I’m actually kind of surprised they didn’t do a $150 SKU – feels like money left on the table (but also fewer players being angry as a result).”
Both editions have been available digitally on PlayStation and Xbox since pre-orders opened on 25 June 2026, ahead of the game’s 19 November launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Ultimate Edition remains a console-store exclusive, so shoppers who prefer boxed retail copies from third-party stores are currently limited to the standard tier.
Sensor Tower’s own analyst doesn’t expect the 89% figure to survive contact with the mass market. According to ValoSettings’ account of the same GamesIndustry.biz interview, Kontus pointed out that “the vast majority of the marketing campaign hasn’t kicked off yet, and most of the preorders will come in the last week or so pre-launch,” adding “I expect the split for these to be much closer to 50/50.” Rockstar’s next big marketing beat, an extended look at the game, is due via Netflix on 27 August, which analysts expect to pull in a much larger and more price-sensitive wave of buyers than the hardcore fans currently topping up their pre-orders.
For now, the early numbers suggest that whatever backlash greeted GTA 6’s headline pricing when it was announced hasn’t stopped the most committed segment of the fanbase from paying extra for exclusive shops and vehicles months before the game is even playable. Whether that holds once casual buyers — including plenty in New Zealand and Australia weighing up regional storefront pricing — join the queue closer to November remains the open question Take-Two itself says it can’t yet answer.
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