GTA 6 subscription service looks increasingly likely after Take-Two earnings call

GTA+ memberships nearly doubled year-over-year. That single stat, dropped casually during Take-Two's latest earnings call, says more about where Grand Theft Auto 6 is headed than almost anything else from the session.

Jason in GTA 6's Vice City

Take-Two held its earnings call on May 21, and CEO Strauss Zelnick came loaded with numbers. GTA 5 has now sold 225 million copies across 13 years on the market. Consumer spending grew across Take-Two's major properties. About 27% of that growth came specifically from GTA Online, a mix of microtransactions and, increasingly, subscription revenue.

What the GTA+ numbers actually tell us

Here's the thing: when GTA+ launched in 2022, most players wrote it off. The consensus on Reddit and elsewhere settled around "skippable at best." One GTA Online player on r/gtaonline put it bluntly in 2025: "Don't buy this slop, you'll make these same rewards in no time even as a casual player."

And yet, memberships nearly doubled in the past year. That's not a rounding error. That's a signal Take-Two will absolutely notice heading into the biggest game release in the company's history.

The key here is understanding what Take-Two is actually selling to investors. Zelnick and Take-Two president Karl Slatoff spent significant time on the call explaining their strategy for maximizing revenue from an existing player base. Slatoff pointed to NBA 2K as the model: build a quality product, grow the installed base, increase engagement, and "ultimately" drive "higher monetization" from those same players. The implication for GTA 6 is hard to miss.

Lucia in GTA 6 reveal footage

The math problem Take-Two needs to solve

Take-Two CFO Lainie Goldstein acknowledged something uncomfortable during the call: the publisher expects a minor decline in consumer spending across its portfolio, including GTA Online. That's the line Fortnite eventually hit too. Live-service games don't grow forever.

So the question becomes straightforward. GTA 6 will generate enormous one-time sales revenue. Zelnick has previously signaled the game won't be priced as aggressively as some analysts have suggested (some have floated $80 as a possibility). That limits the upside from launch alone.

Ongoing revenue has to come from somewhere. GTA Online microtransactions have been the engine for years, but that engine is showing signs of cooling. A subscription attached to GTA 6, or an expanded GTA+ tier that includes GTA 6 content, fills that gap neatly.

Zelnick's "red meat" comment and what it signals

Zelnick closed out one investor exchange with a line that's already making the rounds: "Are we just going to sit back and relax as we head into the release of GTA 6? I think the opposite is true. You're talking to a team that you've known for 17 years. We're in the business of eating red meat for breakfast. I think we'll be having a lot more red meat in the coming months."

That's not the language of a company planning to sell a game and walk away. Take-Two is clearly positioning GTA 6 as a long-term revenue platform, not a single product launch. Whether that means a standalone GTA 6 subscription, new GTA+ tiers, or something else entirely remains to be seen, but the direction is clear.

What most players miss in these earnings calls is the gap between what gets announced and what gets planned months in advance. By the time a subscription service shows up in a press release, the decision was made long before. Given that GTA+ already exists, already works, and is already growing fast, the infrastructure is sitting right there.

GTA 6 is confirmed for a November 19 release date. Between now and then, keep an eye on any GTA+ announcements, pricing changes, or new tier structures. That's where the real preview of GTA 6's monetization model will show up first. For everything else leading up to launch, the Grand Theft Auto 6 guide collection has you covered.