Circana analyst Mat Piscatella says the GTA 6 showcase did not lift US Xbox hardware sales, down 27% year on year in September.
Sources blog-nouvelles-technologies.fr
The prospect of GTA 6 is not yet selling Xbox consoles. According to Blog Nouvelles Technologies, citing an interview given by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella to GamesBeat, unit sales of Xbox Series X|S fell 27% year on year in September 2026, the worst September for the line since launch.
Piscatella believes the "GTA VI Extended Look" showcase, streamed on Netflix in August, had no clearly visible effect on Xbox hardware sales in the US. He cautions that it is hard to isolate the influence of one game on console purchases: his view comes from trends in the data, not from an exact measurement.
The PS5 tells a different story. In the same interview, the showcase helped Sony's console, but the analyst credits most of the lift to the recently released exclusive Marvel's Wolverine: roughly 70% of the effect for Wolverine, 30% for GTA 6. He stresses the split is approximate.
Blog Nouvelles Technologies recalls remarks by Matthew Ball, Xbox's strategy chief, saying GTA 6 pre-orders on Microsoft consoles would break records. The two claims measure different things: strong pre-orders for a game do not necessarily mean console purchases. Plenty of players can pre-order digitally on an Xbox they already own.
Read also GTA 6: US PS5 sales jump 22% in September, Circana data shows
It echoes what we noted about the 22% rise in PS5 sales in September: that source gave no Xbox figure, and we did not make one up. Here is the missing number, with the usual caveat: these are US market data, not French ones.
The launch trailer carries the line "Plays Best on PS5", which Blog Nouvelles Technologies cites as something that may steer buyers toward Sony. The site notes it does not by itself explain the sales gap. Rockstar has announced no difference between the two versions of the November 19 release, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Nothing changes for Xbox owners already equipped: the game launches the same day at the same price, €79.99 standard, with preloading on November 12. The September figures do not prove GTA 6 will have no effect on Xbox sales; they only show that the August showcase was not followed by a notable rise. October and November data will show whether the approach of launch changes the picture.
Sources blog-nouvelles-technologies.fr
Reported Reported by the press, not confirmed by Rockstar
By Lara Rivolet · GTAVIFRANCE newsroom
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