GTA VI Breaks Xbox Pre-Order Records Despite PS5 Advantage

Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball sidestepped a question regarding the exact console market share held by Xbox Series X|S.

Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders on PlayStation 5 appear to be significantly outperforming sales of the Xbox Series X|S version. Ahead of the game’s release, this sparked fresh questions about Xbox’s standing in the console market. The Verge journalist Tom Warren reported on the situation, prompting a response from Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball.

According to Ball, Microsoft is quite happy with the pre-order results for GTA VI. Furthermore, the game is already setting records on Xbox, and the company expects even more records to be set during the autumn.

Tom, we are very pleased with GTA VI pre-orders. The game is setting records for Xbox; we expect more records to be set in the fall, and our internal analysis shows that our share of pre-orders is in line with our console market share.

Matthew Ball, Xbox.

Ball did not deny that the PS5 version of GTA VI is selling better in pre-orders than the Xbox Series X|S variant. His comment focused on a different metric: according to Microsoft’s internal data, the Xbox pre-order share matches the platform’s share of the console market. Ball did not respond to Warren’s follow-up question regarding how Xbox specifically estimates its current market share.

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