Grand Theft Auto V has been thriving unlike any other game of its kind. It was released about four years ago, and last December, more people played GTA Online than ever before in the game’s history, breaking its own player record.According to the NPD Group’s analysis of video game sales last summer, this makes the game a #1 bestseller in the United States, on basis of revenue, tracked unit sales, and perpetual standing among the “Greats” as every year passes since its launch.
It was announced last fall that GTA V had sold 85 million copies across all platforms and that its multiplayer community had grown immensely large over the years. Currently, it is outsold only by Call of Duty: WW2 and FIFA 18 — but mind you, these games are 2017’s fresh produce, while GTA V has been lingering on the market since 2013, haunting over 41 Top 10 charts according to NPD’s Mat Piscatella — 16 times more than any other game to date.
What seems to be responsible for this success? The answer is, simply, GTA Online.
While GTA Online had quite a rocky start and fluctuating failures, the team had managed to come up with enough content to meet the broad needs of both multi and single players. Heist expansions seemed to rate the most popular among players, and Rockstar has continued to produce weekly content updates and add-ons. The Doomsday Heist expansion to GTA Online, a three-act sequence of new missions released on December 12, 207, seems to have caused a sudden spike as well.
