Leaked data from hacker group ShinyHunters dropped a number that should make every live-service developer's jaw hit the floor: Grand Theft Auto Online has averaged around $1.3 million per day over the last six months. Since launching in 2013, the game has generated approximately $5 billion in Shark Card sales alone. And with GTA 6 targeting a November release, Rockstar Games now faces a problem entirely of its own making.
The numbers that make this so awkward
Think about what $1.3 million a day actually means for a game that launched over a decade ago on Xbox 360 and PS3. Most live-service games from that era are either dead or running on skeleton crews. GTA Online is, by most measures, bigger than it has ever been.
The most recent major update, A Safehouse In The Hills, brought back lapsed players in noticeable numbers. It added high-end mansions, pushed the GTA V narrative forward by featuring Michael from the single-player campaign, and was well received by the community. That kind of update is only possible because Rockstar has 13 years of player feedback, content history, and infrastructure to draw from. GTA 6's multiplayer mode will not have any of that on day one.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the situation directly during a February earnings call, saying: "I have every reason to believe we'll continue to support GTA Online. There's a great community that loves it, that stays engaged."
That's not just corporate reassurance. It's a statement about a game that is still printing money.
Why GTA 6 starts at a structural disadvantage
Here's the thing: GTA 6's multiplayer mode is going up against more than just a popular game. It's going up against a decade of accumulated content, player investment, and sunk costs.
Players currently sitting in GTA Online have garages full of vehicles, wardrobes built over years, and bank accounts with hundreds of millions in in-game cash. There is virtually no scenario where Rockstar allows any of that to transfer. Letting wealthy veteran players flood into a new economy on day one would break pricing, frustrate new players, and create a balancing nightmare. So GTA 6's online mode will almost certainly start everyone from scratch.
For players who have spent years building their GTA Online empire, that's a real ask.
The Payday comparison is worth sitting with. Payday 3 launched in 2023 with the weight of a beloved predecessor behind it and promptly collapsed. As of April 2026, it averages around 400 concurrent players on Steam according to SteamDB, while Payday 2 still pulls around 20,000. Kerbal Space Program 2 followed a similar arc, bottoming out near 350 concurrent players while the original regularly holds over 15,000. Neither of those franchises had anywhere near GTA's audience, but the pattern is clear: sequels to successful live-service games do not automatically inherit their player bases.
The coexistence problem Rockstar hasn't solved yet
Rockstar's own history with GTA Online actually offers a useful roadmap here. When the PS4 and Xbox One versions launched in 2014, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions kept receiving updates in parallel. The older versions didn't get their final major content drop until 2015 and weren't shut down until 2021, nearly six years later. When the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions arrived in 2022, last-gen support continued. As of right now, both generations still receive the same updates.
Rockstar does not pull the plug quickly. That's a pattern, not an accident.
What this likely means for the next few years is a period where Rockstar is actively maintaining two separate live-service games simultaneously. That is not a comfortable position for any studio. The goal will be to migrate enough players from GTA Online to GTA 6's multiplayer that the newer game reaches a revenue threshold that satisfies Take-Two's investors. At that point, GTA Online's future becomes genuinely uncertain. It could coast for years on a smaller audience, or Rockstar could start winding it down around 2028. The answer will come down to where the money is.
There is also the FiveM factor. The PC roleplay community built around GTA V, now operating under Rockstar's ownership, represents another massive chunk of the player base that GTA 6 will eventually need to win over once the PC version ships. That's a separate, deeply entrenched ecosystem that won't migrate easily.
danger
GTA 6 is currently targeting a November release on console. A PC version has not been officially dated, meaning the FiveM migration question may not be relevant for some time after launch.
GTA 6 is almost certain to sell enormous numbers out of the gate. The hype is real and the franchise has a global reach that few games can match. But selling copies and sustaining a live-service economy are two very different things. The first week will not be the hard part. Keeping players engaged six months in, when GTA Online is still sitting there fully loaded with content, is where the real test begins.
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