GTA IV breaks UK day one sales record

  • Posted May 1st, 2008 at 04:13 EDT by Mike Harradence
  • 15 Comments

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV has become the fastest selling title in the UK in terms of day one sales, shifting a total of 609,000 copies in 24 hours.

The crime epic nudges out former record holder Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which sold 501,000 copies in its first day on sale back in October 2004.

In terms of versions sold, the Xbox 360 release accounted for just over half of GTA IV’s overall sales with 335,000 copies sold (55 per cent), beating Halo 3’s previous record of 266,000 units in September 2007.

The PlayStation 3 version, meanwhile, sold 274,000 copies, drumming up 45 per cent of overall sales and become the fastest selling title on that system in 24 hours, beating Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s record of 80,000 copies.

Speaking to MCV, ChartTrack Director Dorian Bloch commented, “We’ll get into the whole week one debate next Tuesday, but it’s been a very good 24 hours for both Sony and Microsoft.”

“It’s looking very, very promising for Rockstar in terms of full week sales. Even if they don’t even sell one more unit, the current figure would still make for an astounding week one performance,” added Bloch.

"Barring a catastrophe, with lorries bringing stock into stores going AWOL, we can only see that sales number going up and up.

“The Bank Holiday weekend should be a particularly fruitful period – but it will be interesting to see how long the stock lasts as people rush to stores.

Source

Advertisement

Comments

Comment

What are your thoughts?

  1. Shader | AShaddo

    • 4:18am BST - May 1st, 2008

    That's great numbers for the PS3, considering the higher install base of the 360.  I've done my part :).

  2. mayhemmusic | mayhemmusic / stonepig / philmadog1970

    • 4:58am BST - May 1st, 2008

    I agree Shader ... I thought those figures were going to be far more weighted towards the 360. Fantastic Start!!!!

  3. PS3sR2DEAR

    • 5:45am BST - May 1st, 2008

    Wish I could afford the PS3 firstly, just to play it, and it would be my first purchase.

    After all, I own all the other GTA's :-) 

    Another one for the History books Rockstar TYVM.

     

  4. RuiyJR | Tseska_922

    • 6:59am BST - May 1st, 2008

    ha ha nice

  5. Babiloo | XavierHarkonnen

    • 8:06am BST - May 1st, 2008

    got my preorder yesterday :), but i have to say that i thought id like gta4 a lot more than i do... san andreas, vice city, and gta3 seemed much more fun

  6. markwesker

    • 9:47am BST - May 1st, 2008

    why would you wanna buy the 360 version when it has worse graphics n not as smooth game play as the ps3 plus online play is free for ps3

  7. DarkJ3JB | DarkJ3JB

    • 10:24am BST - May 1st, 2008

    Markwesker your statments are true... BUT... most people that own a 360 are already "paying" for online so that doesn't make a rats a.s.s differance in their purchasing reasons.... its mostly what did my fiend get it on or what do I play more.

     

    PSN: DarkJ3JB

  8. Audiman44 | audiman44

    • 10:55am BST - May 1st, 2008

    I was at the midnight launch here in the States and the number of people there was amazing.  I think Gamestop said it was their biggest launch yet.

  9. Morpheus | audiman44

    • 11:12am BST - May 1st, 2008

    I would play it if it worked!  My 60 Gig PS3 version just keeps crashing!

  10. Fiddlesworth

    • 11:36am BST - May 1st, 2008

    So much for the year and four months head-start and UK advertising blitz with exclusive tv ad! I bet the PS3 version sells more over an extended period, too.

  11. gingo | gingo

    • 11:58am BST - May 1st, 2008

    psn id: gingo... there is not a shop i've been into here that has GTA4 currently in stock it unbelievable i've never seen anything like it

  12. AclayPS3

    • 12:08pm BST - May 1st, 2008

    From an article I read Online, 60% of the total sales of GTA4 in the U.S. were the Xbox 360 version  on launch day and 60% of the sales of GTA4 in Europe was the PS3 version on launch day. It's just amazing how well the PS3 is doing in Europe even after Microsoft dropped the price on the 360 in Europe when Sony hadn't.

     

    But what I'm more interested in is the console sales for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in April in the U.S. and Europe.

  13. nuffmon | Nuffmon

    • 12:30pm BST - May 1st, 2008

    Well you can guess that basically that all stock for the first day was totally wiped out.  So it depends on how many copies were delivered to each store.  All the stores i went to apart from Asda had more 360 in stock than PS3.  So the split could be artificial.  Plus i have no idea why the PS3 version was £5 more when the retail price was exactly the same???  Guess PS3 owners must have MUG written on their foreheads.

  14. cammie | Cammie1

    • 1:40pm BST - May 1st, 2008

    our best game for number of copies sold 80,000 thats quite embarrassing :S

    but xbox has been out longer.

    and its only cos halo 3 was like the reason we we all bought our ps2's 2 buy gta. ;)

    y did they giv in to xbox :(

    still thats an amazing number for both consoles :O

    i didnt actually think it wood btht many in 1 day !!!

    oh  and does this include pre-orders????

    oh and AclayPS3 ps3 is sooooo much more popular ovr here than the xbox XD

    most of mmy friends hav a ps3 ratherrthan xbox and the 1s hoo hav both say they hardly evr play their xbox ... theyr more likely 2 play the ps3 ;)

    oh and anotherr thing.

    the amount spent by microsoft hassnt helped as much as they thot it wood i bet !!! :P

  15. InfernoReaper | GrimDarkling

    • 11:44pm BST - May 1st, 2008

    I wish I could have helped with that but gas prices seem to take the most toll on my gaming.

    ---

    Oh and LA Noire is no longer our exclusive.  It's going to the 360 as of now.  I think Sony decided to change the exclusivity for LA Noire to future GTAs.

Related information

  • Related game: Grand Theft Auto IV

    Release date (US):
    April 29th, 2008
    Developer:
    Rockstar North
    Genre:
    Action - Third Person
    Rank:
    4 of 1,476 Games
    Up 0 places (in last 7 days)

Related videos

Related images

All trophies for this game

More

eXTReMe Tracker