Take-Two Interactive is heading into the next Grand Theft Auto release with its stock up more than 1,600% since Strauss Zelnick took over as chief executive in 2011, and investors still do not know how much the game cost to make. The company said only that Grand Theft Auto VI is now set to arrive on Nov. 19, after first being planned for the fall of 2025 and then for May 2026.
Zelnick has spent 15 years steering the company through a stretch that turned Take-Two from a roughly $12 stock into one that closed Tuesday at $216 a share. The company posted $5.6 billion in full-year net revenue in 2025, underscoring the scale of the business even before the next Grand Theft Auto lands. Asked about the development budget for GTA VI, Take-Two declined to comment or confirm a dollar amount, while Business Insider estimated the cost at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.
That would put the game in rare company even before launch. Grand Theft Auto V brought in $1 billion in sales in three days in 2013, becoming the fastest entertainment release to hit that mark, and it went on to sell more than 215 million units. From 2013 through 2023, it remained the best-selling title in the U.S. by both unit and dollar sales, a record that explains why a new installment is being watched so closely.
The market it is entering is far bigger and far busier than it was when the last game arrived. The video game market was valued at $219 billion in 2024, and Bain & Company data showed that 19,000 games were released for consoles and PC in 2023, up from just under 2,000 in 2014. In that crowded field, a Grand Theft Auto launch is one of the few that can still dominate the calendar, and the gta 6 pre order conversation is already part of that buildup.
Rockstar Games, the wholly owned Take-Two subsidiary developing GTA VI, does not participate in crunch, meaning it does not rely on the long shifts and intense working hours that have long been associated with deadline pressure in game development. That matters because the project has already slipped more than once, first from the fall of 2025 to May 2026 and then to Nov. 19, a delay pattern that shows how hard it is to land a game of this size on schedule.
Zelnick, meanwhile, has made clear that his role is not to play the games he sells. He has said he does not think being consumer-in-chief helps a chief executive be effective in this business, and he has compared the job to being in college, a sign that he sees leadership as an exercise in judgment rather than fandom. For Take-Two, the real test is whether GTA VI can live up to the expectations built by its predecessor and justify the scale of the bet before the year is out.
