‘GTA V’ gets away with $800 million on first day

Rockstar’s made off with quite a payday on its latest big-budget offering.

The developer’s newest entry in its popular open-world crime franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, pulled in an estimated $800 million on its first day of sales, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive. The game released Tuesday for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; it shipped to all countries except Japan and Brazil.

That’s a monstrous overtaking of recouping the game’s reportedly $265 million budget, and close to breaking the record as the entertainment release to hit the $1 billion mark the fastest. That record’s still held by Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which hit $1 billion within the first 15 days of release. In one regard, GTA V has already one-upped Black Ops 2, which earned $500 million on its launch day.

It’s unknown exactly how many copies of GTA V have been sold thus far; for what it’s worth, there are several versions of the game available, including the $59.99 “bare bones” edition, as well as a $79.99 special edition and a GameStop exclusive collector’s edition for $149.99.

GTA V has earned near-perfect review scores; the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions have earned a 98 and a 97 on Metacritic respectively, and it was earlier projected to earn $1 billion within its first month of release – a figure the game seems much more likely to achieve now.

Does this figure surprise you? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.