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Amid confirmation that GTA 6 really has been delayed again, we have word that Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 has become the fourth best-selling game of all time.
As detailed in publisher Take-Two’s investor call yesterday (November 6), the sequel has sold over 79 million units — making it the “best-selling title of the last seven years in the U.S. based on dollar sales” — and taking sales of the entire series to 106 million.
To give that some context, think of all the hugely successful games that have been released in the last seven years — Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring, to name but a few — as well as everything that’s released over the last few decades. Apart from Minecraft, GTA 5, and Wii Sports, which have sold 350 million, 220 million, and 82.9 million copies, respectively, Red Dead Redemption 2 has outsold everything.
With 79 million sales, that puts Red Dead 2 just ahead of the prior fourth-place Mario Kart 8’s estimated 78.02 million sales, as well as PUBG (75 million), The Oregon Trail (65 million), Terraria (64 million), The Witcher 3 (60 million), and the original 1985 Super Mario Bros. (58 million).
You’d think then, that Red Dead Redemption 3 is a dead cert. But Rockstar has yet to announce a sequel. Earlier this week, Rockstar Games co-founder and former lead writer Dan Houser said he’d feel more sad to learn Red Dead Redemption 3 was in development without him than he feels about GTA 6, but admits the game “will probably happen.” As lead writer, Houser wrote almost all of Rockstar’s games, but having left the company over five years ago, Houser recently confirmed to IGN that GTA 6 won’t have a story or a character set he developed, but expects the game to be great nonetheless.
“Of course, letting go of something I worked on in one way or another for like 20-odd years, and wrote on them for the last 10 or 11 that came out, wrote all of them, or you know, lead writer on all of them, whatever it was… letting go of that is a big change. And sad in a way,” Houser said.
“Because each of the [Grand Theft Auto] games was a kind of standalone story it’s not quite the same as… I think probably it would be in some ways sadder if someone continued on Red Dead, because it was a cohesive two-game arc. That might be more sad to hear someone working on that. But again, that will probably happen too. I don’t own the IP. That was part of the deal. It’s a privilege to work on stuff, but you don’t necessarily own it.”
In 2023, Roger Clark, who played Arthur Morgan, the main playable protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 2, said he was “certain” fans will see Red Dead Redemption 3 “one day,” but qualified that statement by saying he had no idea when that would be. Clark also ruled out the return of Arthur Morgan in the game, should it come to be. If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption 2, this might seem like stating the obvious, but there’s always the chance Rockstar may consider another prequel of some kind.
“I’m certain we will see Red Redemption 3 one day,” Clark said. “When that will be — I have absolutely no idea. Don’t count on Arthur’s involvement either. His story has been told, I feel.”
In a subsequent interview with IGN, Clark expanded on his thoughts: “Yeah, that got really picked up! I would have thought that was obvious though. Wouldn’t you? And it’s not like I have any insider information whatsoever, but of course there’s going to be another Red Dead. It sold over 60 million copies!”
He continued: “Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two said it himself. He said GTA and Red Dead are prominent franchises for Rockstar Games and that they will be returning to them in the future. So there’s no doubt there will be another Red Dead. But if Arthur Morgan will be involved? I highly doubt it, to be honest. And I think it’s going to be quite some time before we even see a snifter of anything new Red Dead related. I have no idea how it would pan out, but I wouldn’t bet on Arthur being a part of it.”
Today, Red Dead Redemption 2 is widely considered to be one of the best video games of all time. We thought it was a masterpiece, too, with IGN’s review returning a 10/10. “Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game of rare quality; a meticulously polished open-world ode to the outlaw era,” we wrote.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
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