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Forums - Gaming Discussion - What Is It About GTA V That Made It Sell So Much?!

I'm honestly trying to figure out how the hell did GTA V sell so well, I mean it already sold way more than the lifetime sales of GTA IV!  I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the review scores since it scored similar to GTA IV and idk about the advertising, I mean I'm sure GTA IV had some significant advertising too.  Also on top of that there are next gen systems coming out soon, which wasn't there when GTA IV came out, and I would think that would have lowered the sales because people were either trading in their current gen systems or were just done with current gen, but it seemed like they had no effect on the sales.  What was it about GTA V that made it such a huge success?



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BasilZero said:

Open World/Popular genre

Great gameplay (excluding the online cause I'm not sure about it)

Rich history/famous franchise

Great developer

GTA IV had all that going for it too though.



Not really sure. There's always a bunch of hype around GTA. And the online looked like a blast from the commercials. Thats what sold it to me. As i'm not a fan of open world games or GTA. The story was pretty good, but it feel flat at the end.



I usually favour RPG games but this is the most fun video game I've ever played.



Well, there are much bigger install bases than when GTAIV launched. Also, even though review scores were great for IV, public perception was that it wasn't all that spectacular. A lot of people, or at least GTA fans, didn't think IV deserved the scores it got. Not so much the case with V.



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The freedom, that game is like a living breathing playground, personally, I grew tire of the series back in GTA4. Its one of those "Fun for a month" type of games for me.



Don’t follow the hype, follow the games

— 

Here a little quote I want for those to keep memorize in your head for this coming next gen.                            

 By: Suke

Aggressive marketing, hype, brand name, reputation.
It deserves the amount of sales, the game really is incredible on the hardware it's on. Imagine Red Dead, Bully (Please Rockstar!!!!!!), and GTA 6 on next gen...



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Massive marketing, a predecessor that was rated outstandingly well, great developer, install base, large buildup of hype due to delays



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Hype
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The amount of casual gamers (CoD, BF, FIFA, Madden type guys)



BasilZero said:
KingdomHeartsFan said:
BasilZero said:

Open World/Popular genre

Great gameplay (excluding the online cause I'm not sure about it)

Rich history/famous franchise

Great developer

GTA IV had all that going for it too though.


Yes. So...whats the issue? GTAIV sold more than 20 mil as well.

I'm asking how did GTA V sell so much better than GTA IV, but all the reasons you listed were there for both games.  Although they contributed to GTA V's sales they are not the reason it sold leaps and bounds more than GTA IV.