GTA V sales on PS4 and Xbox One should ‘pale in comparison’ to last-gen

Michael Pachter doesn’t believe the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One version of Grand Theft Auto V will hold a candle to the game’s last-gen performance.

The game has to date sold a whopping 34m units across PS3 and Xbox 360, raking in $1bn in its first three days. It’s the fastest selling game ever in the UK, shifting 2.25m copies in its first week.

And with PS4 sales having passed 10m in the summer and Microsoft’s most recent Xbox One sales numbers – which date back to April, by the way – standing at 5m we currently have a next-gen install base in excess of 15m but likely short of 20m.

Pachter made the prediction, as reported by Videogamer, when speculating that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will likely fare better than predecessor Call of Duty: Ghosts.

"We expect an increase in Call of Duty sales this year," he said. [This is] due to the free upgrade feature, Day Zero access and less competition – EA’s Battlefield Hardline launches in the March 2015 quarter, and sales of Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto V on next-gen consoles should pale in comparison to sales of the current-gen version of the game last year) – and likely improved review scores driven by a three-year development, up from two-year development cycles for previous iterations."

MCV still expects the game to make a big impact, however.

GTAV will go on sale for PS4 and Xbox One on November 18th, with the PC version to follow in January 2015.