Take-Two bookings fall 18% as GTA VI pre-orders surge

Take-Two Interactive’s net bookings fell 18 per cent to US$1.6 billion in its fiscal second quarter, slightly below its own forecast, but the company kept its full-year outlook and said pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI are running far ahead of plan before the game’s Nov. 19 launch.

The New York-based publisher reported the results on Monday. Net bookings, the industry’s main sales measure, came in at US$1.60 billion, down from US$1.96 billion a year earlier and under the US$1.62 billion to US$1.67 billion range Take-Two had forecast. The company said the shortfall came mainly from NBA 2K27, which posted the second-highest bookings in the series’ history but still missed internal forecasts.

“Preorders for Grand Theft Auto VI are tracking far in excess of our initial expectations,” chief executive Strauss Zelnick said on the earnings call, according to a transcript published by The Motley Fool.

Take-Two’s second-quarter numbers

GAAP net revenue fell 16 per cent to US$1.50 billion from US$1.77 billion. The net loss narrowed to US$54.0 million, or 29 cents a share, from US$133.9 million a year earlier. Operating expenses dropped 9 per cent to US$978 million on lower staff costs and less spending to acquire mobile players. Recurrent consumer spending, from in-game purchases and add-ons, made up 81 per cent of net bookings.

What Take-Two expects from GTA VI

Take-Two kept its forecast of US$8.0 billion to US$8.2 billion in net bookings for the fiscal year ending in March 2027. For the current quarter, which includes the GTA VI launch, it forecast US$3.35 billion to US$3.5 billion, roughly double the US$1.76 billion of a year earlier. It did not raise the full-year outlook before launch.

Grand Theft Auto VI, made by Take-Two’s Rockstar Games, goes on sale Nov. 19, 2026. The Grand Theft Auto series was the one major Take-Two franchise whose bookings rose from a year earlier, the company said, while NBA 2K and mobile declined.

Sources: Take-Two Interactive second-quarter fiscal 2027 results and earnings call (transcript via The Motley Fool), Take-Two filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Figures are in U.S. dollars.