Games · GTA 6 · Xbox · PlayStation
Are GTA 6 pre-orders really "heavily skewed" to PS5? The Verge says yes, Xbox says no
The Verge reported GTA 6 pre-orders are heavily skewed toward PS5. Xbox's strategy chief says its share matches its share of the console market. Who said what.
Carried by established outlets, not officially confirmed.
Seven weeks before launch, Grand Theft Auto VI has become a proxy fight about the health of Xbox.
On 24 September, The Verge's Tom Warren reported that GTA 6 pre-orders were "heavily skewed" toward PS5, citing sources at Xbox, and said it was "ringing yet more alarm bells about the platform." Within hours, Xbox's Chief Strategy Officer, Matthew Ball, replied publicly and disputed it.
No one has published an actual number. That's the most important thing to know before reading anything else about this.
Who said what
Both statements can be true
Read carefully, the two claims don't contradict each other as much as the headlines suggest.
PS5 has sold far more consoles than Xbox Series X|S this generation. If Xbox's share of GTA 6 pre-orders simply matches its share of the console market, pre-orders will still lean heavily toward PS5 — because the install base does. Push Square made the same point: a split of roughly three PS5 pre-orders for every Xbox one would be the expected baseline, not a crisis.
So "heavily skewed to PS5" and "matching our market share" can describe the same numbers. The real question is whether Xbox is underperforming its own share, and neither side has shown data that answers it.
Why this story exists at all
Context matters. This lands in the same week Microsoft cut more jobs and moved several studios under Activision, which we covered in the Xbox layoffs and Undead Labs restructuring. It also follows this year's console price rises. Any number about Xbox right now gets read as a verdict on its future.
It's also worth noting what "breaking records for Xbox" does and doesn't mean. A game this anticipated would be expected to set pre-order records on every platform it's on, so the phrase says more about GTA 6 than about Xbox's position.
Our read
Treat "heavily skewed" as a reported claim from unnamed sources, and "matching our share" as a company statement with no figures attached. Neither is a sales number. The first real data will come from Take-Two's earnings, and from launch-week charts after 19 November.
If you're still deciding where to buy it, our editions and pre-order guide covers what each version includes.