GTA VI sales exceeded one billion a week before release – the gangster game is compared to the great novels of the 19th century

To be published at that time Grand Theft Auto VI eli GTA 6 has gained a colossal status in pop culture even before its release and has broken several records. When the game’s first trailer appeared on YouTube in December 2023, it collected more than 90 million views in a day.

In the current week, the sale of the game was estimated to have exceeded billion dollars. The developer Rockstar Games has not confirmed the figures, but it is likely that the game is the most pre-ordered ever.

It is also reportedly the most expensive video game of all time with an estimated budget of 1-2 billion dollars. The planning started ten years ago and actually started in 2020.

In play adventure in an open world reminiscent of Florida. Based on the trailers and other preliminary information, you can do almost anything in the game, for example kayaking, going to the gym, base-jumping from the roof of a skyscraper, partying in a nightclub and diving in the sea.

Above all GTA-games, however, are known for stealing cars, running away from police and shooting.

How did a game that romanticizes gangster life become one of the biggest cultural products of our time?

A saga started in the mid-1990s when Scottish DMA Design developed Race ’n’ Chase – called PC game. The game was supposed to drive in a two-dimensional city, where the player could choose the role of a policeman or a robber. However, the developers noticed that the role of a robber was more fun. So they focused on that, and in 1997 a game called it was released Grand Theft Auto.

The designers were short on funds and could not afford to travel to the United States, where Pelimaailma was located. So they emphasized clichés about American culture that they learned from movies and music. The entire game series has since interpreted as satire about the American dream and society.

Series in the third part in 2001, Pelimaailma became three-dimensional. In a New York imitation in Liberty City could, in addition to driving, explore side streets on foot and, for example, travel by subway. The game had a coherent story and the characters had their own backgrounds.

“I’ve never seen a city modeled like that in a game,” says The Guardian interviewed literary and gaming critic Christopher Byrd.

With each release, the game worlds grew wider and more detailed than before. At the same time, social issues such as class differences, the meaning of ethnic background and corruption were reflected in the game’s characters and stories.

GTA VI:n the story focuses on the Bonnie and Clyde-style adventure of the two main characters, Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval. Lucia Caminos is GTA-the first female protagonist of the series.

A world set in the fictional state of Leonidas is described unprecedentedly extensive and detailed. There are local weather events and social media where characters can post updates. When the character carries a basket of corn, the liquid sloshes around inside the bottles.

One of the leading developers of the game by Rob Nelson let’s tell nervous when the jewelry store security guard depicted in the game was not in the right position.

Christopher Byrd tells The Guardian that, contrary to popular belief, no GTA-games’ charm is primarily based on shooting or crime. Instead, what makes the games special is the detailed richness of the worlds.

“Those who have spent a lot of time with these games know that it’s often the idle moments between missions that are best remembered. Driving around aimlessly or seeing a mountain peak, climbing up there and watching the sun cycle for 45 minutes.”

of The Guardian in the article GTAis even considered the equivalent of the 21st century Emile Zolan, Charles Dickensin and to the works of other great realists of the 19th century, in which the many human destinies of society overlap and the spirit of a certain time and city is sought to emerge.

The comparison is not necessarily far-fetched. Co-founder of Rockstar Games Dan Houser has mentioned among other things as his favorite books George Eliotin Middlemarchin (1871) as well as Leo Tolstoy War and peace (1867).

“They are kind of sprawling narratives, the different plot threads of which eventually come together,” Houser quoth For The Guardian in 2025.

“They’re also very realistic, in a way. You don’t jump back and forth in time. They’re very tangible and physical in that sense, and so are video games.”

Houser has not been involved in the making GTA 6:n manuscript.