Quick answer: Sony and Microsoft both confirmed on November 10 that Grand Theft Auto VI is the most pre-ordered game ever on their digital stores, PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store. Neither gave a number. Both are telling players to pre-load now, which is already live for digital pre-orders. Current as of November 10, 2026; the game launches November 19.
Grand Theft Auto VI has broken pre-order records on both console storefronts. In a PlayStation Blog post on November 10, Sony said GTA 6 “is now the most pre-ordered game in the history of PlayStation Store.” The same day, an Xbox Wire post called it “the most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store.”
Both platform holders paired the news with the same advice: start pre-loading now. Sony said it “strongly” advises everyone who wants to play on launch day to pre-load “as soon as possible,” citing “unprecedented demand.” Xbox used nearly identical wording.
What the record does and does not tell us
- It is a store record, not a sales total. Sony and Microsoft are only counting digital pre-orders on their own stores. Boxed copies from retailers are not part of it.
- No numbers were shared. Neither company said how many pre-orders GTA 6 has. A Sensor Tower estimate reported by IGN puts it around 9.69 million units, but that is a third-party estimate, not an official figure.
- It lines up with Take-Two. On its November 9 earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said pre-orders were “tracking far in excess of our initial expectations.” Our Take-Two earnings recap has the rest.
Why the pre-load warning matters
A record number of digital buyers means a record number of people trying to download the same huge file at once. Sony says the PS5 version needs at least 212 GB of free space. Pre-loading now spreads that load out, so you are not stuck at a progress bar when the game unlocks. Players with a code-in-box copy can redeem the code as soon as they have it and start the download.
Launch timing
- PS5: a rolling midnight launch by country on November 19, starting at 12:00 a.m. NZDT in New Zealand. That works out to about 5 a.m. CT on November 18 for the first unlocks; US players unlock at local midnight.
- Xbox Cloud Gaming: streaming starts at 1 a.m. ET (midnight CT) on November 19 for Xbox One and Series X|S, using Series S graphics settings.
Xbox also said more Rockstar games are coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming in the coming months, including Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. From November 11, players in supported markets can buy cloud playtime to stream supported games without a Game Pass subscription.
Still need to clear space? Our GTA 6 pre-load guide covers the steps, and our GTA 6 performance breakdown explains the 30 FPS target on every console.
Sources: PlayStation Blog, “Pre-load Grand Theft Auto VI on PS5 starting today” and Xbox Wire, “Grand Theft Auto VI Comes to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S Through Xbox Cloud Gaming on November 19” (both November 10, 2026). Image: Rockstar Games.
