Sensor Tower reports that 89% of GTA 6 preorders are for the $100 Ultimate Edition, rather than the $80 standard edition, highlighting an unusually strong demand for the game’s premium offering.

The split is similar across both launch platforms. Around 90% of Xbox preorders are for the Ultimate Edition, compared with 88.5% on PlayStation.

The figures support recent comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, who said GTA 6 preorders were "skewing more to the premium edition." However, the scale of that trend has surprised Sensor Tower.

Karl Kontus, SVP and GM of Video Game Insights at Sensor Tower, told GamesIndustry.biz that premium editions typically perform well during the preorder period because the earliest buyers tend to be the most dedicated fans. Even so, he said he had never seen a premium edition reach a 90% share of preorders.

According to Kontus, a 50% premium share would already be considered strong, while the typical share for premium editions is closer to 10% to 20%.He expects the Ultimate Edition's share to decline as GTA 6 attracts more casual buyers, although he believes it will likely remain well above the industry average.

The eventual split between the two editions will depend heavily on how many casual players Rockstar can bring into the preorder market before launch. Kontus expects that figure to change significantly as the game's wider marketing campaign gets underway.

"The vast majority of the marketing campaign hasn't kicked off yet," he said, adding that most preorders are likely to arrive during the final week before launch. He expects the eventual split to move much closer to 50/50.

Even then, Kontus stressed that GTA 6 is difficult to compare with other releases because of the extraordinary level of interest surrounding the game.

Pricing may also be helping the Ultimate Edition. The $80 standard version is already above the current $70 industry norm, making the additional $20 for the Ultimate Edition relatively small compared with the extra content included.The Ultimate Edition comes with a substantial collection of additional vehicles, weapons and other bonuses, including access to exclusive vehicle customization features.

Kontus believes that makes the premium version more appealing than some other special editions, which can sometimes rely on relatively minor extras to justify a higher price.For many players, he said, GTA 6 is likely to be the year's biggest game, making the Ultimate Edition an easier purchase for those who want to get the most out of it.

The strong preorder performance also raises questions about how many copies GTA 6 could sell at launch. Sensor Tower currently estimates that the game has around 4.3 million preorders, with approximately 77% coming from PlayStation and 23% from Xbox.

Using more typical preorder patterns, the current figure could theoretically point toward more than 40 million preorders by launch. However, Kontus cautioned that normal sales patterns may not apply to GTA 6.

He expects the preorder campaign to be heavily frontloaded and believes the final figure could instead land around 25 million. Even that would represent an extraordinary performance.

For comparison, Cyberpunk 2077 reached 8 million preorders by launch. If GTA 6 reaches 25 million preorders, that would represent roughly $2 billion in preorder sales before the game even launches, depending on the final mix between editions.

Take-Two's Zelnick has previously described GTA 6's preorder numbers as "unprecedented and astonishing," while also acknowledging that the company does not yet know how those numbers will translate into total sales.

Analysts have already offered ambitious predictions for GTA 6's first-year sales. Estimates have ranged from roughly 30 million to more than 50 million copies, with some forecasts suggesting the game could approach 60 million under an exceptionally strong sales scenario.

For now, the most striking figure may be the premium-edition split. Sensor Tower says 89% of current GTA 6 preorders are for the $100 Ultimate Edition, a level Kontus says he has never seen before.