EA Founder Sets Thanksgiving Test for GTA 6

EA founder Bing Gordon has picked a distinctly American scene to measure GTA 6’s impact: the hours after Thanksgiving dinner. For him, one sign of success will be people playing GTA instead of watching the holiday’s traditional football games. He made the comment on the Sozzi Unleashed show, as reported by GameSpot.

A Thanksgiving test

Gordon summarized his idea by saying that, after eating turkey, the public should choose GTA over football. GTA 6 is set to arrive only a few days before Thanksgiving, according to the timing described by the source. That could turn the holiday into an early test of how much space the game captures in players’ routines.

The comparison does not have to be treated as a strict choice between the two activities. GameSpot notes that many people will likely watch football and play GTA 6 on the same day. Gordon’s point is to use a widely followed tradition as a reference for the amount of attention the launch can command.

The EA founder also offered a second measure of success for GTA 6. Gordon said it would be “mind-blowing” if the game reached 75 million copies sold. That figure was not presented as an official target from Rockstar or Take-Two.

Where 75 million came from

Gordon arrived at 75 million by calculating 10% of an audience of 750 million that he associated with an earlier GTA 6 video. GameSpot notes that no individual video for the game has 750 million views. The figure may instead reflect the collective circulation of GTA 6 videos across different internet platforms.

The video Gordon called “the preview” might have been the GTA 6 Extended Look. That presentation premiered on Netflix before reaching YouTube, according to GameSpot. However, the interview did not definitively establish which video he meant.

The discussion begins with a question that still has no public answer: how much GTA 6 must sell to cover its development. The game is expected to be a major commercial success, but Take-Two does not disclose the information required to calculate that threshold. The source also does not provide a confirmed final development budget.

Gordon compared the scale of games with the movie business. He said a film reaching $300 million is a great result, while $1 billion is an extraordinarily strong performance. He also acknowledged that movies and video games are not directly comparable businesses.

Projections before launch

Sensor Tower estimates cited by GameSpot claim that GTA 6 has sold approximately 7 million copies so far. The company puts the resulting revenue close to $700 million at this stage. These are outside estimates rather than commercial figures released by Take-Two.

Sensor Tower is also projecting 25 million preorders by launch. Under that estimate, GTA 6 would generate about $2 billion in revenue before release. The projection will still depend on the game’s actual sales performance during the remaining period.

Another indicator comes from Circana, whose data shows that nearly one in three console and PC players in the United States intends to buy GTA 6. According to the company, that is the highest purchase intent it has ever recorded. The survey supports the enormous expectations, although it cannot guarantee that every stated intention will become a sale.

What this changes for players

Gordon’s comments do not change GTA 6’s price, platforms, access, or schedule. Instead, they offer an outside benchmark for following the game’s reception during its first days on the market. For fans, Thanksgiving could show whether GTA 6 has moved beyond the usual gaming audience to compete with one of the biggest television traditions in the United States.

It remains unknown how many copies Take-Two believes GTA 6 must sell to qualify as a success. It is also unclear which video led Gordon to use the 750 million-view reference. As reported by GameSpot from the Sozzi Unleashed interview, both the 75 million figure and the Thanksgiving test are the EA founder’s personal measures, not official GTA 6 targets.