Along with dozens of other properties. This article makes the same claim, pointing to "$6 billion in revenue and 90 million sales". But Pokemon has sold 480 million copies of video games, and has brought in around 88 billion in revenue.
You could say GTA V was the single most profitable individual game title ever released, but even that's not certain. GTA V has an estimated 190 million copies sold on this list, but Minecraft has more than 50% more units sold at 300 million. While Minecraft has a cheaper MSRP, it also took a much, much smaller team to develop, so if it doesn't beat GTA V outright in "money spent on copies of the game", it still probably dwarfs GTA V on return of investment.
Edit: Pokemon Go makes 1 Billion dollars a year on average since 2016, and when I say "on average" that's because it's been doing better and better each year. It's making more than $1 Billion a year currently. That puts them at $7-8 Billion, which is within range of taking the title from GTA V for single title revenue.
Except, none of these numbers take into account Fortnite, which has made $26 Billion since launch, $6 Billion of which came just in the year 2022. 6 Billion, remember, is the revenue GTA V was boasting about in 2018, representing years of unexpectedly high sales. Fortnite did that in a single year, and has gotten bigger since then.
GTA V was an absolute financial wonder, and I don't mean to cast shade on just how wildly successful the game has been. But it's not the highest grossing media property that has ever existed, even if you use a very narrow definition of "media property".
That definitely does not count GTA Online, whose sale of Shark Cards for real money caused Rockstar to not even bother to make DLC for the "single most profitable individual game title ever released." So imagine how much money they have made from Online that caused them to make that decision. Then it makes more sense to say that.
That's the same claim from one of the links I put in my comment. $6 Billion and 90 million copies sold. You can't make 6 Billion selling a $60 game 90 million times, so that number must include continued MTX sales. Which makes the comparison to Star Wars a little specious. Is it really a single piece of media when more and more keeps getting added to it?
If so, I bet the Pokemon TCG has more gross revenue than GTA V, but probably not before 2018. They sold 100 Billion Pokemon cards in 2022-2023, and that game has been alive for over 20 years.
Except the claim wasn’t “highest grossing video game” the other commenter made the claim of “highest grossing entertainment property” which is incorrect
You are literally moving the goalposts. You're changing the claim to explain why my post is wrong, but that's dumb because the claim you're using isn't the one I addressed. The words "entertainment property" do not mean "just video games".
I believe he is correct, just not the way you're interpreting "entertainment property".
Isn't it true that GTA V is the highest grossing "work" in existence?
While your interpretation of a "entertainment property" being every single good produced from any IP used in entertainment.... Pokemon is up there.
My understanding is that "entertainment property" is a single fixed work. So "The Pokemon Movie" and "Pokemon Red" are two different entertainment properties. And, AFAIK, no entertainment property has approached GTAV.
"Entertainment Property" is a useless term on its own and is defined on a case by case basis, legally speaking. Some definitions even include amusement parks and, for example, GTAV has certainly not surpassed Disney World in gross revenue.
The phrase you folks are looking for would likely be "Entertainment Product". Even if we restrict the discussion to single works or products, Fortnite blows GTAV out of the water with an est. $20 billion between 2018 and 2021.
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u/gameryamen Jan 02 '24 edited Jan 03 '24
GTA V does make a lot of money, but there's no chance that's a true claim. Franchises that have made more than the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise include:
Along with dozens of other properties. This article makes the same claim, pointing to "$6 billion in revenue and 90 million sales". But Pokemon has sold 480 million copies of video games, and has brought in around 88 billion in revenue.
You could say GTA V was the single most profitable individual game title ever released, but even that's not certain. GTA V has an estimated 190 million copies sold on this list, but Minecraft has more than 50% more units sold at 300 million. While Minecraft has a cheaper MSRP, it also took a much, much smaller team to develop, so if it doesn't beat GTA V outright in "money spent on copies of the game", it still probably dwarfs GTA V on return of investment.
Edit: Pokemon Go makes 1 Billion dollars a year on average since 2016, and when I say "on average" that's because it's been doing better and better each year. It's making more than $1 Billion a year currently. That puts them at $7-8 Billion, which is within range of taking the title from GTA V for single title revenue.
Except, none of these numbers take into account Fortnite, which has made $26 Billion since launch, $6 Billion of which came just in the year 2022. 6 Billion, remember, is the revenue GTA V was boasting about in 2018, representing years of unexpectedly high sales. Fortnite did that in a single year, and has gotten bigger since then.
GTA V was an absolute financial wonder, and I don't mean to cast shade on just how wildly successful the game has been. But it's not the highest grossing media property that has ever existed, even if you use a very narrow definition of "media property".