GTA 5 sales pass 15 million units, may sell 25 million in first year, suggests analyst

Sales of Grand Theft Auto 5 may well have topped 15 million units worldwide, according to Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz. He expects the figure to pass 25 million within the game's first year.

He wrote in a research note sent to investors this morning: "Based on the $1B three-day figure Take-Two disclosed, we believe the game has already sold through at least 15MM units.

"For a game to sell 60% of its first year units in just three days would be abnormally high; we estimate that Call of Duty sells about 45-50% of its first year units in its first week at retail.

"However, for now we are assuming that GTA 5 sales will be extremely front-loaded due to high gamer anticipation, and will also have a shorter sales tail given the launch of next-gen consoles in November."

Since its release last Tuesday GTA 5 has done nothing but smash sales records. It is the UK's fastest selling game in history, shifting more copies in its opening week than the total launch week sales of all previous games combined. It came in above the previous record holder Call of Duty: Black Ops with an additional 250,000 sales.

It's hard to imagine that anyone hasn't already bought it, really.

Thanks, CVG.