Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two’s stock price is soaring this week following the company’s recent earnings report on February 6. Why is the share value surging? It’s often hard to know what makes a stock price move in the market, but there are some strong signals for what might be causing it this time.
Starting with the numbers, Take-Two’s stock price is currently trading above $210 per share, which is about $35 higher than where it was when markets closed on Thursday. That’s a gigantic gain for a single day, and it helped propel Take-Two’s stock price to the highest value in the company’s history.
Take-Two’s previous high of around $210 per share came in 2021 during the pandemic, when many entertainment companies saw huge gains due to stay-at-home orders. For a historical comparison, when GTA V was released in September 2013, Take-Two stock was trading at around $17 per share. Anyone who bought back then, or earlier, and still holds Take-Two shares today is doing quite well.
On Thursday, Take-Two made a couple major announcements. First, management confirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI remains on track for release in Fall 2025, though management said it cannot rule out a delay later on. Perhaps the more notable piece of news that may have contributed to the stock-price growth was that Take-Two significantly beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations, which investors are seemingly responding positively to.
Take-Two lost 71 cents per share during the latest quarter for a total net loss of $125.2 million for the period. But analysts expected Take-Two to lose about 90 cents per share, meaning Take-Two’s performance, while in the red overall for the period, was far better than what many expected. This, coupled with the announcement that GTA 6 remains on track, may help explain why Take-Two stock is exploding. As always, though, there are never any clear answers for why a stock moves in a particular direction.
Every Rockstar Games release in the past decade has been delayed beyond its originally announced date, so some continue to believe GTA 6 might get pushed to 2026. Some are theorizing that GTA 6 was actually already delayed but only internally given reports of missed deadlines. Only time will tell if GTA 6 makes it out on time, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more.
Reacting to the long wait for GTA 6, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said, “We know that Rockstar seeks perfection. I never claim success before it occurs.” He added: “I’m fond of saying arrogance is the enemy of continued success, so we’re all running scared and looking over our shoulders and we know that the competition is not asleep. Our whole organization is super excited.”
GTA VI has extremely big shoes to fill, as GTA V has sold more than 210 million units, propelling the entire series to 440 million copies sold. One company believes GTA VI can sell 40 million units and drive $3 billion in revenue during its first year alone.
Whenever it’s ready, GTA VI will be released on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Take-Two is likely to bring some of its games to Switch 2, but no one should expect GTA 6 to be among them.
