Rockstar Games

Quick facts

Rockstar Games describes itself as a label founded in 1998 and a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Its corporate pages list New York, London, Paris and Bogota, and its studio list runs from Rockstar North in Edinburgh to Rockstar San Diego in Carlsbad, California. Take-Two's own filings describe Rockstar as a wholly owned label whose series include Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne, Midnight Club and L.A. Noire, and its investor material counts ten internal studios under the label.

The freshest official figures come from Take-Two's report for the three months ended 30 June 2026, filed with the SEC on 7 August 2026. It puts the Grand Theft Auto series at over 470 million units sold-in, Grand Theft Auto V at over 230 million and Red Dead Redemption 2 at more than 85 million. Grand Theft Auto VI is listed there for 19 November 2026, with pre-orders opened in June 2026.

Is Rockstar one studio or many?

Rockstar is usually spoken of as a single developer, but it is a group of studios that share technology, tools and a common standard of production. The company's own careers page lists offices including Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Rockstar San Diego in Carlsbad, Rockstar London, Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar Lincoln, Rockstar Dundee, Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar New England, Rockstar Australia, Rockstar India and Rockstar LA. Each site hires independently, and the list is published openly rather than announced in a press release.

That shape explains both how the games are made and why they arrive so seldom. A release such as Grand Theft Auto V or Red Dead Redemption 2 is assembled by several teams working to one design over many years, and the work cannot simply be split and parallelised. It also means a slip in one project moves everything scheduled behind it, because the same people are shared. It is also why the label rarely begins something entirely new while a flagship is still in production.

The Grand Theft Auto series

Grand Theft Auto is the property the label is built around. Take-Two's filing for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 puts the series above 470 million units sold-in worldwide, and says Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013, has passed 230 million. Grand Theft Auto Online ships with every copy and is run as a continuing service, carried forward by free updates rather than by sequels. The same filing names the series among the company's most important properties.

Those unit figures count copies shipped to retailers and digital storefronts, which is why the company calls them sold-in rather than sold-through. They still place the series among the largest properties in entertainment. Take-Two names Grand Theft Auto among the biggest contributors to its quarterly net bookings, treating it as recurrent revenue as much as a release. That framing is why so much of the label's output after 2013 landed inside existing games rather than in new boxes.

Red Dead Redemption and the smaller series

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the label's second pillar. In the same June 2026 filing, Take-Two reports more than 85 million units sold-in for the game worldwide. Take-Two credits the game with several records in the entertainment industry and calls it a success on both the review and sales fronts. Red Dead Online was given away with every copy before being released as a standalone product in December 2020, following the same service model the company applies to Grand Theft Auto Online.

Behind those two properties sit the smaller franchises: Max Payne, Midnight Club, L.A. Noire, Bully and Manhunt. Take-Two's filings name several of them when describing Rockstar's internally owned series, which matters because an owned property can be revisited without renegotiating anyone else's rights. They sell in far smaller numbers than the two flagships, so they appear far less often in the release calendar, and they are revisited on the label's own schedule.

Why the games arrive so rarely

Take-Two's filings describe the label's strategy as a limited number of titles built for longevity, with sequels, extra content and in-game spending stretching each one over many years. That is a deliberate trade: fewer releases, each expected to earn for a decade rather than a season. Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 both followed that pattern and both were still generating revenue long after launch.

The cost is a thin calendar. Between major releases the label leans on online modes, versions for newer hardware and catalogue sales. Take-Two's own investor material warns that the timing of Grand Theft Auto releases can affect its quarterly and annual results, which is a formal way of saying that a single date carries a large share of the company's year. A quiet stretch is not evidence that nothing is being built.

Grand Theft Auto VI and the release calendar

Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for 19 November 2026, according to Take-Two's quarterly report for the period ended 30 June 2026. Rockstar's newswire had already confirmed that date in November 2025, when it moved the release off an earlier 26 May 2026 window that had itself been announced in May 2025. The same filing records that two trailers had been released and that pre-orders opened in June 2026.

A schedule is not a delivery, and this one has moved twice without the game shipping. Take-Two's investor material lists release timing among the risks to its results, and the company has kept the date through its subsequent communications rather than narrowing it. For anyone following the label, the practical habit is to read the newswire rather than the calendar, and to treat an announced date as a plan until the title is actually in players' hands.

Games

• 171
• Grand Theft Auto VI
• GTA Online: Beach Bum Update
• GTA Online: Business Update
• GTA Online: Capture Creator
• GTA Online: Capture Update
• GTA Online: Deathmatch & Race Creators
• GTA Online: Festive Surprise
• GTA Online: Heists
• GTA Online: High Life Update
• GTA Online: Holiday Gifts
• GTA Online: I'm Not a Hipster
• GTA Online: Independence Day Special
• GTA Online: Last Team Standing
• GTA Online: San Andreas Flight School
• GTA Online: Valentine's Day Massacre Special
• Hot Coffee
• L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• The Italian Job

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