Xbox Says GTA 6 Is Breaking Its Preorder Records — After Reports That PS5 Is Running Away With Them
The Verge reported that Xbox sources say GTA 6 preorders are heavily skewed toward PS5 — and Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball fired back publicly, insisting the game is breaking Xbox's preorder records.
The console wars are back, and the battlefield is GTA 6 preorders. A report from The Verge this week claimed that inside Xbox, the GTA 6 preorder numbers are "heavily skewed toward PS5" — ringing "yet more alarm bells about the platform" — and Xbox's top brass is not letting it stand.
Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball responded publicly on X, replying directly to Verge reporter Tom Warren. "We are very happy with GTA VI pre-orders," Ball wrote. "The title is breaking records for Xbox, we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market."
That last clause is doing the heavy lifting. Ball is not claiming Xbox has more GTA 6 preorders than PlayStation — he's arguing that the split reflects the size of each platform's audience, not a collapse in Xbox demand. Sony has a massive installed-base advantage: the PS5 is approaching 100 million units sold against an estimated 35 million Xbox Series X|S consoles. On that logic, PlayStation leading in total preorders is exactly what you'd expect.
The hard numbers — such as they are — come from third-party estimates, not the platform holders. Sensor Tower tracked roughly 3.15 million PlayStation preorders against 930,000 on Xbox through July 20, with combined net revenue of $395 million at that point. A later estimate put total preorders at 5.28 million as of September 11, split around 77% PlayStation to 23% Xbox. These are estimates. Rockstar, Take-Two, Sony, and Microsoft have released no official platform-by-platform totals, so neither the report nor Microsoft's rebuttal gives you the full picture.
One more data point in Xbox's favor, reported by PC Guide: nearly 9 out of 10 GTA 6 preorders so far are for the $99.99 Ultimate Edition rather than the $79.99 Standard Edition — which means Xbox's record-breaking preorder revenue is real even at a smaller share of units.
Context matters here too. Warren's reporting sits inside a wider story about Xbox's restructuring — mass layoffs, with 268 roles cut earlier this week, and Activision taking charge of the next Halo game. Microsoft is sensitive to any narrative that Xbox "is no longer a necessary console for major releases," and Ball's unusually public response shows it. Warren, for his part, has already replied asking exactly what Xbox's share of the console market looks like — Ball had not answered at the time of writing.
Expect this one to keep simmering. Nobody outside Rockstar and the two platform holders knows the real split, and with more than seven weeks to go until the November 19 launch, both camps will keep claiming momentum. What we can say: preorders are huge on both platforms, and whichever platform you play on, the line is getting longer.
Sources: The Verge, Gamespot, Push Square, TheGamer, PC Guide, Niche Gamer, Sensor Tower