Worldwide lifetime. 

For the last couple of months the PS3 version has started to outsell the 360 version, worldwide. At the moment it is by about 10K a week, but it is slowly increasing. 

After the NA weekly sale numbers come in, the two versions will stand like this: 

GTA4 360: 5.91M 

GTA4 PS3: 4.42M 

Thats a 1.49M difference, which at this rate will take 149 weeks to catch up. Given that Japan will give the PS3 version at least another 200K over the 360 version, and that holiday seasons will increase the sales. I think it could happen well within two years. 

Thoughts...

I think the download content will spike the 360 sales, and keep it above the ps3 version in the long haul

japanese are into gta?

Jokes, aside. Wake up and smell the coffee. It ain't gonna happen. Are you expecting the x360 to just stop selling while ps3 version adds another 1.5 million to its total? Especially with x360 getting the exclusive DLC.

lol..no

ymeaga1n

Well GTA:SA sold 400K in Japan, so it does sell quite well there.

The fact is the PS3 version is selling more each week now, so it will eventually catch up unless the trends change.

Very unlikely as time goes by the interest in the game declines. 1.5 million gap is a huge margin.

The only problem is you fail to take into acount the exclusive downloadable content coming out sometime this fall for for the 360, which could lead to a sales spike.

You also fail to aknowledge the effect the 360's price drop will have on software, and seeing as how america is a big sucker for random violence (gta) I forsee gta sales increasing for the next couple of weeks in america.

I did think about the 360 price cut and I thought it would make very little difference in the long run. 

I didn't think about the exclusive content until about 2 seconds after I had posted the original post.

People make way to big a deal about DLC. Those interested in DLC are likely those that bought the game day one, or shortly thereafter. Or rather, those that would've bought the game no matter what, as they are big fans of the series.

As far as choosing which version to get, it was probably only a deal breaker for the few that own both systems. I can't see it swaying any console purchases, given the fact that people are probably more concerned about the larger library, rather than possibly getting a few extra hours of gameplay from a single game.

Except you forgot to mention GTA:SA was on a much much more successful platform and much larger install base than the PS3...