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According to digital intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the $100 Grand Theft Auto 6 Ultimate Edition is leading pre-order sales by 89%.

Last week, Take-Two Interactive reported earnings of $1.39 billion during GTA 6's pre-order period, with CEO Strauss Zelnick saying that the game "had an exceptional start to pre-orders", but he couldn't disclose specific sales numbers.

"I can say that the level of pre-orders is unprecedented and astonishing, and we’re very grateful for that,” Zelnick said at the time. “But they are so unprecedented that we just don’t know how it’ll translate into sales, which is a question I answered earlier. We genuinely don’t, and we just don’t believe in claiming victory before it occurs."

While the publisher is not disclosing specific sales figures to avoid misleading investors, the CEO also told CNBC that they're "skewing more to the premium edition," and suggested it was due to die-hard fans pre-ordering it.

Now, Karl Kontus, SVP and GM of Video Game Insights at Sensor Tower, also reported something similar (via GamesIndustry.biz), saying that 89% of preorders for GTA 6 are for the more expensive Ultimate Edition, rather than the $80 Standard Edition.

Kontus also said the percentages are similar for both versions of the game, with 90% of players on Xbox spending the extra cash for the Ultimate Edition, compared with 88.5% on PlayStation. He also told GI.biz that preorders for GTA 6 could reach around 25 million when the game launches on November 19, which would amount to “unprecedented preorder performance" and translate to $2 billion in revenue, which would cover GTA 6’s development cost and the majority of marketing spend.

As Zelnick suggested, Kontus said special editions "always tend to perform well during the preorder period," because the games are typically preordered by dedicated fans who want a premium edition.

"That being said, I have never seen a 90% premium share before," he added. "A 50% premium share during preorders is a great number. Typical premium shares for games tend to be at around 10–20%."

However, he expects the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition sales percentage to decline over time as more casual players buy the game, "but it's likely it'll stay significantly above the industry standard," adding that the split between the $80 and $100 versions will be determined by how effective the marketing campaign will be.

Since the full marketing campaign hasn't kicked off yet, Kontus expects most pre-orders will come in the last week of pre-launch, but the split will be "much closer to 50/50."

Unlike the Standard Edition, which comes with the base game, the more expensive Ultimate Edition has a ton of extra features, including premium and exclusive content like missions, Vice City shops, locations, and outfits. While the latter is more expensive, Kontus doesn't believe the difference is "that big," and reckons the move was smart.

"The difference between $80 (already higher than the industry standard $70 we see today) and $100 isn't that big, and the $100 SKU comes with a lot of additional content," he said. "

"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. For a lot of people, this is the one 'must buy' game this year, and they will want to make the most of it. 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)."

It won't be long before fans can get a proper look at the game, as the 'Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look' premieres on Netflix on August 27.

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Demi is a freelance games journalist who helps cover gaming news at TechRadar. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as GameSpot, NME, and GamesRadar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.

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