Trusted retail analytics firm Circana (formerly NPD) shared historical data of the best-selling video games every year since 2000. These blockbusters, which cover the past two decades, cast an incredible look at the dominance of Rockstar Games in various years. Whether it’s GTA or Red Dead, Rockstar Games has some of the best selling games of all time.
The charts start at 2000 and end with 2023, because 2024 isn’t over yet. They also have the top 20 games per year in the US. The sales calculated include all physical discs and digital copies; excluding Nintendo who do not report digital numbers. We’ll go through all the years a Rockstar Games title appears in the top 20. The years in which a Rockstar game does not appear are 2000, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2012.
The diagram placements
First, 2001 saw Grand Theft Auto III release and it was the second best selling game of the year behind Madden NFL 2002. The sports game had a few more months on the market to help it. Max Payne also launched in 2001 coming in at 13th place.
GTA Vice City took the top spot in 2002 but GTA III still reached third position even thought it came out the previous year. Max Payne also made another appearance for 16th place. Vice City slipped to 12th in 2003. A new entry that year was the Grand Theft Auto Double Pack at 18th place. It was a bundle containing both GTA III and Vice City.
2004 was when Rockstar took the crown for the first time. GTA San Andreas reigned supreme. It moved down to 8th place in 2005 but this was due to several huge releases such as Madden 06, Star Wars: Battlefront II, NCAA 06, Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition actually made the top 20 as well! It was the 11th best seller.
After a two-year gap of missing the top 20, Rockstar Games re-entered 8th with the legendary GTA IV. Despite being popular, it lacked greater successes such as Wii Fit, Wii Play, Rock Band, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Call of Duty: World at War. The game was also released in April while Call of Duty dropped in November and Guitar Hero: World Tour came out in October. Red Dead Redemption came out in 2010 and hit 6th position after no titles in the top 20 of 2009. LA Noire got 16th place in 2011.
Then GTA V broke records in 2013. It was the best selling game of the year. It remained in 3rd place during 2014 and 2015. The game slipped to 6th place in 2016 and 2017. Meanwhile, Red Dead Redemption 2 captured a much larger audience than the previous game. It was the best selling game of 2018. GTA V moved down to 11th place.
In 2019, GTA V lost only 1 place but Red Dead 2 finished the year in 13th position. Despite being several years old in 2020, GTA V earned places as high as 8th. Red Dead 2 hung around at 20. While Red Dead Redemption 2 missed the top 20 in 2021, it returned to it at 19th during 2022. GTA V came in 11th during that year then 15th in 2023.
It will certainly be interesting to see where GTA 6 will land over time. We can assume that the first place is locked for the year it becomes available. In other recent charts, sales of Red Dead 2 and GTA V are starting to fall.
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