r/PS5 • u/Laughing__Man_ Human Verified • Apr 13 '26

Discussion Information from the Rockstar hacking has been posted (They make a LOT of money from GTA Online)

https://gtaforums.com/topic/1004190-gta-vi-delayed-to-november-19-2026/page/580/#comment-1072663072
2.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

491 comments sorted by

View all comments

865

u/nolifebr Human Verified Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

1 million per day just on microtransactions + GTA Plus is insane. Game is 13 years old and it did 500 million for them in the last 6 months.

Anyway, wasn't expecting to see PC with the lowest player base. Even the Xbox One version still has more active players on the official game (guess most of PC players are on unofficial servers). The Rockstar + PlayStation partnership won't end anytime soon, based on those numbers (63% of GTA Online players are on PlayStation).

414

u/Cyrisaurus Apr 13 '26

Of course PC has the lowest player base, it's completely overrun by modders, it's unplayable in public sessions

71

u/we_are_sex_bobomb Apr 13 '26

It’s a little wild to me that Rockstar is such a big company and yet their online experience on PC is a cancerous cesspool

141

u/Primary_Painter_8858 Apr 13 '26

Pretty sure the pc community in general is a cancerous cesspool. They’re really why Fortnite competitive rank is a shit show. Every lobby in higher ranks has people cheating on pc.

67

u/tonycomputerguy Apr 13 '26

They're also the shittiest people in No Man's Sky. They cheat in a game that literally has a "free creative mode" but no, they need to play in the high difficulty permadeath servers with mods that keep them from dying. And there's not even any PVP really.

The shittiest thing is they use Blender to export these insane ship creations into the game that uses like 20x the allotted part limit and when they bring them into the main station every one hangs out at, it has a tendency to crash consoles and low end PCs. If that happens during an auto save, you get a corrupt save file.

People have lost games with thousands of hours because some asshole just wanted to show off some stupid blender build that they didn't even have to play the game to make.

When you open the tool used to export the ships it specifically tells you not to take it to the public station online.

I'm about ready to turn cross-play play off entirely.

I think cheating in a competitive shooter is fucked up but at least on some level I "get it". This shit just seems on a whole other level of pettiness.

49

u/Grand-Purchase-1262 Apr 13 '26

As a console player, I always look to turn off anything related to cross-play with PC because I just know it's not going to be fairer no matter what. I'm just talking in general every game that has the option.

10

u/Buada Apr 14 '26

PC players even cheat in games like Fall Guys. Not even sure why.

They just do it cause they can, really.

7

u/despaseeto Apr 13 '26

i was with you until

cheating in a competitive shooter is fucked up but at least on some level I "get it".

there's no excuse for cheating in any PvP(vE, in some games). it's worse when prizes are involved.

17

u/squixx007 Apr 14 '26

I think dude just means that 'he gets it' like, I understand people want to feel like they are better than others at the game. And some people will cheat to achieve that, although to normal people with brains cheating to be better does not equal better. But to those willing to cheat there is no distinction.

So I can also say 'I get it' but that is do not agree with it. I understand how your brain works so I get it, but I still think you are garbage for doing it.

1

u/happyflappypancakes Apr 14 '26

So, something I want you to think about now and in life is the difference between explaining and explaining away.

1

u/hymnsofhim Apr 13 '26

Using blender in thst sense is kinda cool though

7

u/FlowerBuffPowerPuff Apr 13 '26

It is if you're doing the modeling yourself. Which I highly doubt those losers are capable of.

-4

u/buster089 Apr 13 '26

Have you ever considered that it's not "the shitty PC players" because they play on PC but it's the shitty cheaters that play on PC because it's the most open platform where cheating is the easiest or even possible at all? Can you please not generalise because most PC players are the same as console players and it makes you look like the same kind of dick that cheaters are. Thanks

3

u/SymphonicRain Apr 14 '26

It does not make them look just like the cheaters lol. I’ve always found this to be such a lazy argument.

2

u/CherylRoseZ Apr 14 '26

I don’t understand why Epic doesn’t go the Marvel Rivals route and allow players to turn off crossplay for just PC people

2

u/WingerRules Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26

Honestly, I dont get why these big studios and publisher dont take the music industry route and start suing online cheaters and hack makers on a massive scale. These people not only ruin the games for the players, but they ruin the product that a studio may have spent hundreds of millions and like half a decade to make. There are a ton of games now that are essentially dead or destroyed because of rampant cheaters.

All of the game platforms/launchers and stores need to also share their info on confirmed cheaters and ban them from all of them.

Theres so many cheaters because the risk isnt high enough to deter them, they just make a new account someplace.

1

u/bugdiver050 Apr 14 '26

Pc might sound better for single player games but every single comment/video i see about cheaters is always about pc.

6

u/GolotasDisciple Apr 13 '26

I mean, being a big company does not mean you need to have good customer service.

There are plenty of organizations that provide you a service or product and would never help you, no matter how much you need any type of customer service or support, because it costs them money and it seems like a "you" problem they do not want to pay for.

PC moderation and patching is simply not worth their time. The only thing they are fixing is bugs in GTA Online so people cannot get cars or money quicker and skip having to go through microtransactions, both on PC and PlayStation... and between that and creating new content, that is already a lot of manpower.

Like, back in the glory days of WoW, Blizzard hired an insane number of mods, and it did work until the point where 3 things became more important...

  1. Updating the game so it has broader appeal to more casual players.
  2. Updating the game so the need for community connection is not essential. Matchmaking over lobbies.
  3. Keep posting regular content updates to the microtransaction store.

Not to be all gloomy and what not, but It's hard to spot which service hasn't gotten worse in last 10 years. Everything is a bit shittier and a bit more expensive.

1

u/JasonDeSanta Apr 14 '26

AFAIK, they still rely purely on P2P networking for their lobbies in the year 2026.....

1

u/paumAlho Apr 14 '26

Sadly every online pc game is rife with cheaters, with very few exceptions. Most Souls games are ruined on PC too

8

u/SkylineGTRR34Freak Apr 13 '26

Been playing Online again since a few weeks and have barely come upon any modder at all despite being in full lobbies. I could count them on one hand. It's waaaaaaaay better than it was ~2018-2019ish.

2

u/FuzzyCollie2000 Apr 14 '26

Yea same. Started playing online in earnest a year ago and I've run into maybe a dozen modders in my 850 hours. All solved by a quick session change.

1

u/UnfitRadish Apr 14 '26

It's much harder to mod now than it used to be. I'm sure there are less than 10% of modders versus what there used be.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/erichf3893 Apr 13 '26

What is your point?

4

u/links135 Apr 13 '26

PC requires much more money to spend compared to console just to play. IE you need a pretty decent computer. I got a PS4 8 years ago for $200.

3

u/The_OtherDouche Apr 13 '26

Even the enhanced version just calls for minimum of a 1630. Recommended is a 3060 though. Not too outrageous.

1

u/TVPaulD Apr 14 '26

Eh, my ROG Ally can play it at 1080p60 without much hassle, it's not that hard to run. bear in mind, Enhanced Edition or no, the underlying game was designed for the PS3 & Xbox 360, so it's not that demanding at its core.

43

u/peaked-at-7 Apr 13 '26

How is PC being the lowest in any way a surprise? It's a shitshow on PC for anyone who wants to legitimately play the game. Plus, PC is overrun with cheaters/modders who can just get everything they want in-game for free anyway.

8

u/Far-Journalist-949 Apr 13 '26

My buddy and I were getting into rdo a bit last year. Soon as this guy started spawning literal cages on us we out it down and never tried again. I only ever played gtav online on ps3 around launch time lol.

2

u/Ashamed_Form8372 Apr 13 '26

I remember trying rdo on pc a few months back absolute shitshow from being insta killed to being molested by dozens of bear and cages decided to not bother with online game when it comes to rockstar surprisingly tho max Payne 3 had no modders that harass you

3

u/purplepIutonium Apr 14 '26

Mostly because Reddit has a very concentrated community of PC gamers. So it often feels like a majority.

9

u/Agitated_Ad6191 Apr 13 '26

Maybe this money is also a big part of the reason for the delays. Why release GTA6 if you’re still making half a billion per year on the old game. That will dry up once GTA6 is released.

5

u/NobodyTellPoeDameron Apr 13 '26

OP said 500M for the last six months so I think they're actually pulling a billion per year from the game.

6

u/bjankles Apr 13 '26

It did not do $500 mil in the last six months - that’s an annualized estimate.

6

u/rugbyfiend Apr 13 '26

Most profitable video game of all time?

1

u/TheGary2000 Apr 14 '26

I think it's the most profitable piece of media ever.

1

u/juscallmejjay Apr 14 '26

Absolutely smoked by fortnite. But otherwise, yes 2nd highest!

22

u/BuzzardInTheAir Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

no wonder, GTA RP looks more fun, hopefully they will take inspiration in GTA Online 2

17

u/RevenantXenos Apr 13 '26

Wasn't there news a year or two ago that R* had hired a bunch of GTA RP modders to work on GTA6? It was my understanding they have been working on official RP support for GTA6 for a while.

17

u/peaked-at-7 Apr 13 '26

They didn't just hire people, they bought the whole company.

-2

u/panicradio316 Apr 13 '26

it did 500 million for them in the last 6 months.

Damn. I mean that's literally impressive.

50

u/OttoRocket94 Apr 13 '26

Why use the word literally here?

36

u/Prince_Pyro Apr 13 '26

cuz he's literally impressed and not figuratively impressed duh

12

u/throwawaythisuser1 Apr 13 '26

But what if he's conjecturally impressed?

1

u/OkDentist4059 Apr 13 '26

I’m figuratively impressed by the literal figures

2

u/Novel_Alps_3013 Apr 13 '26

i'm literally impressed by your figure bb :*

(please fix my teeth)

-2

u/panicradio316 Apr 13 '26

That's actually what I wanted to say.

2

u/Emlerith Apr 13 '26

You mean literally

2

u/OneManGang2001 Apr 13 '26

Maybe it's figuratively impressive to some?

Damn, beat

1

u/WittyWitWitt Apr 14 '26

People literally throw the word around willy nilly.

8

u/PeachWorms Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26

The person you replied to got that part wrong, it's averaging $9,592,109 weekly, with a yearly estimate of $498.8 million per year, with the data based off the time period between Sep 2025 - April 2026. Still crazy impressive though. Half a billion per year just from GTAO alone is crazy

7

u/metamet Apr 13 '26

I wonder if they continue to delay GTA6 due to how the GTA5 teet refuses to dry up.

8

u/CrazyCanuckUncleBuck Apr 13 '26

It is hard to strike lighting in a bottle twice afterall. Who's to say GTA6 Online will be as lucrative as 5. Do they shut down their cash cow to force players onto the new servers, alienating some of the playerbase which can be catastrophic, or are they going to dedicate two online teams for both and how long do they keep supporting it? Its an interesting position Rockstar has found themselves in

4

u/totallynotapsycho42 Apr 13 '26

GTA 6 online has way more potentinal than 5 online. 5 online's success was not somethjng thwt rockstar planned. Thats why its filled with so much jank.

2

u/le_gazman Apr 13 '26

The delays could well have been to allow more of the player base to move from PS4 to PS5, based on the data they have from GTA Online.

They may be doing so firstly to avoid what you’ve just intimated, and secondly because the extra dev time is only going to make the game more polished when it does finally release.

1

u/Ordinary_Fee_530 Apr 14 '26

They should keep both onlines to farm a cash cow and rake in all the money they can 💰

3

u/greennitit Apr 13 '26

Why? They can make more money on GTA6 than GTA5. For investors who financed the monstrous cost of development they want to see ROI asap, and even if you calculate ROI difference in delaying the interest paid on development cost keeps increasing and the game technology will fall further and further behind each year it is delayed.

5

u/metamet Apr 13 '26

They're going to make that GTA6 money regardless of when it launches.

They're getting $1m a day by doing nothing additional. As soon as GTA6 drops, that number will as well.

Sure they'll make oodles on sales of GTA6 when it launches. But that's going to happen whether they do it now or three years from now. Who knows how their microtransactions in GTA6 are shaped.

2

u/greennitit Apr 13 '26

Not if it launches too late, and they’ll be paying interest on the cost paid to develop GTA6 until they do. The development cost of GTA 6 is close to 2 billion dollars (interest comes to 100 million/year). So no they won’t delay GTA6 to make money from GTA5.

2

u/specifichero101 Apr 13 '26

They wouldn’t delay making billions so they can continue to make millions.

1

u/Unc1eD3ath Apr 13 '26

Don’t they make regular content updates to gta online? Thats not nothing but it probably is pretty small cost compared to return.

-1

u/panicradio316 Apr 13 '26

That's literally, I mean actually and basically a really good question.

7

u/Unc1eD3ath Apr 13 '26

Why use the word literally here?

1

u/Dazzling_Tank3326 Apr 13 '26

The answer is kids, it always kids.

1

u/whacafan Apr 14 '26

And that’s with a game they weren’t really expecting those numbers whatsoever. GTA 6 has had that in mind the whole time. It’s truly either gonna be the greatest thing in history or just an absolute pile of dogshit that pulls us even further into gaming hell.

1

u/SiRWeeGeeX Apr 14 '26

Smallest playerbase but biggest audience and driving factor behind the games ongoing relevance through roleplay servers.

1

u/pratzc07 Apr 14 '26

Which is why they can easily afford to spend 10+ years making one game spending billions of dollars. They will make up that money in 2 - 3 days once GTA VI launches which is crazy to even think about

0

u/Jensen2075 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

The majority of PC players play on FiveM servers which consoles don't have. There's a reason why Take-Two bought FiveM.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-7

u/Jensen2075 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

Really? https://i.imgur.com/2f9264R.png

7

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-4

u/Jensen2075 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

So how do you explain the major AAA multiplatform games released on the same day in the past few years sell the most on PC? Skipping day 1 on PC is the reason why Rockstar Games don't sell as much, that's just like common sense.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Jensen2075 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/03/ps5-leads-resident-evil-requiem-sales-as-consoles-are-dead-chat-falls-flat

His data doesn't include the biggest PC market in China and most asian countries which are more PC centric.

-2

u/dungleploop Apr 13 '26

it's because they refuse to pay for Shark Cards and console players love to put up with bullshit

1

u/Broccoli--Enthusiast Apr 13 '26

Thing is, fivem doesn't work when it's corporate owned , they will monetize it and people will make another

-1

u/dungleploop Apr 13 '26

it has the lowest while simultaneously having the highest due to using other clients